On 5 and 6 December 2021, Amnesty International Nepal and Human Rights Journalists’ Association (HURJA) jointly organized a workshop on human rights journalism in Janakpurdham in Province 2.
Altogether 24 journalists from eight districts of Province 2 working for the national and local media from electronic, print and online media actively participated the workshop.
The workshop was inaugurated jointly by Bikram Dhukuchhu and Ghanashyam Khadka, the Chairs of Amnesty Nepal and HURJA respectively. Amnesty Nepal’s director Nirajan Thapaliya highlighted the objective of the programme.
The workshop was facilitated by Dipendra Jha, the Chief Attorney of Province 2, Bir Bahadur Budha Magar, the Head of Office at the Provincial Office of the National Human Rights Commission, Ghanashyam Khadka, the Chair of HURJA and senior editor of the Kantipur National Daily, Binod Ghimire, senior journalist of the Kathmandu Post, senior journalists Anjali Subedi and Bhola Paswan, Baburam Pant, Campaigner at Amnesty’s South Asia Regional Office and Nirajan Thapaliya, Director of Amnesty Nepal.
Thapaliya introduced to the participants how Amnesty International as a human rights movement emerged in Nepal and how it is making human rights interventions in Nepal and elsewhere. Magar from the NHRC highlighted on the key human rights challenges in province 2 and the way forward for broader strategic collaboration between the media, civil society organizations and the national institutions.
Khadka’s insightful session on human rights journalism motivated the participants on following the ethics of journalism for the protection and promotion of human rights.
Senior journalist Subedi interacted with the participants on how to do gender sensitive reporting and how to do a feature story on the issues of human rights and social justice issues in a human rights friendly ways.
Paswan’s session was focused on highlighting the importance and power of data, and the methods of data gathering and processing. Illustrating his news stories on Dalit rights issues, he explained how journalists could utilize data to amplify the voices of people suffering human rights abuses.
Panta dwelt on how journalists are frontline human rights defenders and how Amnesty International has been working with media including to promote and protect the press freedom.
Ghimire’s session on the practical aspects of human rights journalism was deeply engaging. He provided insightful tips and tricks on comprehensive human rights reporting.
Chief Attorney Jha shed light on some of the key human rights achievements made by the government in Province 2 including in giving effects to the human rights issues in provincial laws and policies.