BUJUMBURA February 21st (ABP) – The Minister of Communication, Information Technologies and Media, Mrs. Léocadie Ndacayisaba in collaboration with the French Ambassador to Burundi, Mr. Jérémie Blin, proceeded on Friday February 18th, 2022 in Bujumbura, at the official launch of the Media Professionalization Support Project (PAPROM).
Mrs. Ndacayisaba indicated in her speech for the occasion that this project will bring its intervention to the initial training and the training of trainers. She added the PAPROM will intervene in the provision of equipment to the media, the training of journalists and technicians as well as managers of news companies.
According to the minister responsible for the media, to have a professional media sector, it will necessarily be needed to have well-trained and well-equipped journalists. She seized the opportunity to call on universities to train future student journalists by providing quality training in journalism.
Mrs. Ndacayisaba also reported that this project includes dialogue sessions aimed at improving trust between the media and the communicators of the institutions in order to further strengthen their relations. On that occasion, she appealed to development partners, including France, to support that sector because only the government of Burundi feeds that fund within the limits of its means.
As for the Ambassador of France to Burundi, Mr. Jérémie Blin who participated in that activity, he specified that the support project for the professionalization of the media will be part of a long-standing cooperation of France in Burundi in the field, before pointing out that France supported the implementation of the national radio and television house in the 1980s.
The Ambassador of France to Burundi also stressed that an amount equivalent to two billion Burundi francs (BIF) was planned to support that project through three main components, specifying that this amount will support universities for the professionalization of training offers in journalism and audiovisual professions; to the capacity building of the media and another component which is related to the strengthening of the collaboration between the media and the public institutions, he insisted.
Mr. Blin also pointed out that this project will support three universities, namely the University of Burundi, the University of Lake Tanganyika and the Light University of Bujumbura, in order to professionalize teaching in journalism and audiovisual but also in research on media.
Mr. Blin did not forget to recall that this project will build the capacity of all the different actors such as radio and television technicians, community radios, online and traditional media as well as the spokespersons of the public institutions.