Business Journalists for Change: Reporting about political reforms

Since 2017, GIZ has focused on supporting Iraq in creating private sector jobs for its young and growing population. To facilitate this, GIZ also worked with chambers and business unions as well as governmental bodies to promote effective policy changes. And how do journalists come in?

In many post-conflict countries, there is urgent need for political and economic reforms. However, the framework conditions for drafting and implementing these are challenging. Politics often take place in private settings. It is often unclear who is actually responsible for driving reforms and making decisions.

Journalists play a key role: It is their mandate to shed light into these processes in a transparent yet critical way. They can uncover economic challenges, mischief or corruption and speak for the voiceless. In a globalised and increasingly digital world, false information is on the rise – making the work of reliable and trustworthy journalists even more important.

That is why GIZ and Deutsche Welle Akademie have collaborated to create the Business Journalists for Change programme. This six-month-long programme, which began in September 2022, has 14 journalists from various media outlets, including newspapers, radio, TV, and freelance journalists, participating in Erbil, Baghdad and online in Arabic, Kurdish, and English languages. The training covers topics such as constructive journalism (solution-oriented journalism), data-driven journalism, and data visualization. Professional coaches provide their expertise and advice to the participants, helping them identify the topics they wish to address.

With journalists ready and equipped to cover reform needs and challenges in their articles, interviews and analyses, they provide important information to the Iraqi public. 

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The “Business Journalists for Change” programme is part of the “Private Sector Development” project, co-funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the European Union as part of the Team Europe Initiative #TAEUFIQ.