Constructive Journalism Comes to North Africa

Journalists from Libya, Tunisia and Egypt analyzing the balance of news in their respective media at the MiCT Tunis Constructive Journalism Workshop/credit:Veronique Mistiaen

“Wouldn’t constructive stories belittle the problems we are facing?” asked the tall Libyan journalist.   “If we write stories with a constructive angle, how can we make sure that they won’t be used as propaganda by the regime?” the thoughtful Egyptian journalist wanted to know.

These were some of the stimulating questions journalists from Libya, Egypt and Tunisia asked during the very first Constructive Journalism Project’s workshop in the region.

The political and media landscapes in post-revolutionary North Africa are not only very different from those in the UK and EU, where we have been running most of our workshops – but they are also different in each of these three countries.   This led to very interesting, challenging and passionate discussions.

Nineteen journalists participated in a three-day Constructive Journalism workshop in Tunis on November 25-28 arranged by Media in Cooperation in Transition, MICT, a German non-profit organization that runs media development projects in crisis regions. In addition to working for various  media outlets, many participant journalists also contribute  to Correspondents.org, a bilingual digital magazine (Arabic/English) designed by MiCT to cover three countries.

We began the workshop by analyzing the various newspapers/media they work for, discussing the balance or imbalance in the news and its impact on the readers/audiences, on major issues such as migration and climate change and on democracy.

Constructive Journalism was a new and rather unfamiliar concept to all participants, but they could see the need for a journalism that moves from the crisis rhetoric, trying instead to capture the complexity of social and political life, reconnecting with communities and reinvigorating our profession.

We then explored practical tools journalists could use in their own reporting in order to produce stories that are more balanced, explore new angles and possibilities and ask different questions to those in power, the experts and the so-called victims.

During our last session, the journalists pitched constructive-angled story ideas for Correpsondents.com. These included stories on a Libyan port city, where the community and police worked together to drive traffickers out; transitional justice in Tunisia; projects to get young people off drugs in deprived areas in Libya and a profile of a young female hero from Cairo’s Tahrir Square.  

“In our country, more than 90% of the news is on war and conflicts – who wins and who loses. Everything else is ignored,” a Libyan journalist said. “Now we have the tools to change that.”