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When Rumor Is News: Journalism 101 to the Rescue

Paris-based American journalist and professor of journalism George Kazolias imbued in a new generation of Cameroonian journalists with the need to verify facts and to strive for balance and credibility at all costs in a series of U.S. Embassy-sponsored journalism seminar workshops, held from September 3-13, 2007, in Douala, Yaounde and Ngaoundéré. Young journalists, students of journalism and media interns gathered under a speaker program entitled “Journalism 101,” whose aim was to review the theoretical and practical fundamentals of journalism and to challenge the local journalistic reflex with a perspective from abroad. Kazolias began all seminar series by stating that democracy and advancement in society depend on the twin pillars of education and information: education to enable citizens to understand information and information to alert the public to the full range of choices.

The program in three provincial capitals underscored the role of the press in a democracy. Participants said they received “a second wind,” “three years of material in three days,” “reaffirmation at having made the right career choice.” The new and soon-to-be journalists completed the seminars with renewed commitment to the profession of journalism and it reaches within society.