By Andrew Mkonda
Lilongwe, October 30: Reserve Bank of Malawi has urged journalists across the country to accurately communicate issues of economy in a simple manner to avoid confusing and bringing panic among the general public.
RBM Public Relations Manager, Davie Ndege made the call in Lilongwe on Monday during a daylong media training aimed at equipping media practitioners with skills on how they can report issues of finance accurately.
“We appreciate the role the media plays in disseminating information to the general public, but let the media make sure that what they are communicating is accurate and well verified by the relevant authorities to avoid confusing people,” he said.
Ndege further urged the media practitioners to be precise and communicate issues of economy in a simple manner so that everyone understand the information properly without any challenges.
Ministry of Information and Digitalisation Principal Information officer, Wallace Chipeta thanked RBM for the training saying it will assist members of the media to accurately communicate economic issues to the general public.
Chipeta advised members of the media to have enough information from the experts saying business reporting is not just about numbers and data; but rather coming up with articles that can be well understood by the general public,” he said.
One of the participants, Cathy Maulidi from Times Group described the training as an eye opener since some of the terms that are being used in economics have been well simplified and understood by media practitioners.
Maulidi said the training has assisted members of the media on how they can identify sources who can comment on issues of economy rather than talking to anyone else.
The training drew together Senior Information Officers, District Information officers (DIOs) from the Ministry of Information and Digitalisation and business journalists from different media houses in the central region.