Liberian Journalists Challenged to Turn China Training Into Action

Monrovia- Twenty-three Liberian journalists have returned from a two-week media training program in China with new professional insights, international connections and a challenge that could prove more difficult than the journey itself, turn what they have learned into better journalism for Liberia. By Willie N. Tokpah The challenge came from Bai S. G. Best, leader of the Liberian media delegation, and Vice President of the Publisher Association of Liberia, whose closing remarks at the end of the October 14–28 seminar went beyond the usual expressions of gratitude that accompany international training programs. Instead, Best left his colleagues with a question rooted in a familiar idea of growth, responsibility, and accountability. “If I plant you, will you grow?

” It was a question directed at 23 media practitioners drawn from Liberia’s state-run and private media institutions who had spent two weeks in China studying media communication, international reporting, cultural exchanges, media convergence and approaches to combating fake news. For Best, the significance of the trip would not be determined by the certificates participants received in Beijing, the institutions they visited, or the experiences they shared abroad. It would be measured by what happens when they return to their newsrooms, face editorial deadlines, and resume reporting on the problems confronting ordinary Liberians. “Our Chinese hosts have planted seeds of knowledge, friendship, and possibility in each of us. The question now is what we will do with them,” Best told the gathering. “To our Chinese friends, thank you for planting these seeds. To my Liberian colleagues, let us return home determined to make them bear fruit. ” The seminar, organized by the Research and Training Institute of China’s…