Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) - Viet Nam Program in collaboration with the Faculty of Broadcasting (FoB), the Academy of Journalism and Communication organized on-field training for future journalists. At the launching of the program, from November 4 to 6, 2022 in Ninh Binh, WCS and FoB organized an intensive training course for 18 students majoring in journalism and communication from the Academy of Journalism and Communication; School of Journalism and Communication (University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University) and the University of Science (Hue University) who were selected through an application round and an interview round. The training course is an on-site skills training combined with field trip to explore topics on wildlife protection.
18 mentees, 3 journalist and FoB's lecturers participated in the training, Ninh Binh, November 2022
In three days of training, the mentees were shared journalism experience, skills in exploring topics, especially for interesting but difficult topics related to wildlife protection and illegal wildlife trade from 3 professional investigative journalists and reporters, including reporter Nguyen Truong Son of VTV24; journalist Hoang Van Chien of Dan Viet online newspaper and journalist Nguyen Tran Anh Thu of VOV2 Voice of Vietnam. These journalists will also be mentors who will directly guide and inspire the mentees in developing journalistic articles. In addition, dung the training, lecturers of FoB also provided the mentees with knowledge related to modern journalism and applying technology in developing journalistic articles. Mentees also had the opportunity to visit the Thung Nham Bird Park, the Carnivore & Pangolins Conservation Program, and the Turtle Conservation Centre in Cuc Phuong National Park to understand the characteristics and behavior of some wild species, the conservation, rescue and release activities.
Reporter Nguyen Truong Son of VTV24 shared his investigative journalism experience, Ninh Binh, November 2022
After the training course, 18 mentees will be divided into groups with the guidance and coaching of a journalist and a lecturer to develop ideas, conduct surveys, and field trips to collect information and produce journalistic products that will not only contribute to enhancing the quality and quantity of news and articles reporting IWT in the media but also efforts in wildlife protection in general.
The training program is implemented within the framework of the project “Disrupting the illegal wildlife supply chain in Asia through strengthening partnerships between the government and civil society to increase the effectiveness of Government action” - Partners Against Wildlife Crime funded by the European Commission in Vietnam (EU).