Kaieteur News reporter back from training course in India
…India has been a whole new experience for me—Tusika Martin
Kaieteur News
May 13, 2007
After successfully completing a Diploma in Developmental Journalism, Kaieteur News journalist Tusika Martin has returned with a reservoir of knowledge to share with the local media.
Ms. Martin, who departed Guyana in January, has completed courses in Economic Journalism, Communication Theory, Reporting and Editing, and Media Freedom, Laws and Ethics.
The 23-year-old journalist attended the Indian Institute of Mass Communications (IIMC) JNU Campus, New Delhi for the programme.
She was part of a group of 21 that included participants from 18 developing countries around the world.
Summing up her trip Ms. Martin said, “India has been a whole new experience for me in many ways. Most importantly the friendships that were made will change my life dramatically.”
She noted that the course was very significant, in an exceptional way, since it allowed the participants to be introduced to the cultures of other countries.
“This course has opened many of our wandering journalistic eyes to how important journalism is in developing countries. Development, after all, is not something thrust upon people, but is a process in which people are engaged, and in which they are both actors and beneficiaries,” Martin said.
She stated that for people to act effectively, however, they must be informed. And that is the role of media and journalists in the developing world.
“Developing countries need good journalism and good journalists, period.
And they need journalists industrious enough to look beyond the polished news releases and briefings put out by well-endowed foreign organisations…..curious enough to find local sources of expertise…..brave enough to present home-grown solutions to pressing development problems,” she noted.
According to Ms. Martin she has traveled back to Guyana knowing that she has benefited significantly from the generosity of the Indian Government.
“It is through the Guyana Press Association that I was afforded this opportunity, and certainly expanding the quota of Guyanese allowed to be part of this course is something that I would encourage. My boss, Mr. Glenn Lall also played a significant role in my stay in India.
“Guyana's High Commissioner to India, Ronald Gajraj, did not hesitate to make my stay there comfortable. Whenever I visited my embassy there I always felt as if I was at home,” she added.
Further, she stated that she would also advocate for Indian experts in the field of journalism to travel to Guyana to engage in similar programmes like the one she just completed.
Ms. Martin is the first media worker to benefit from such an opportunity involving the Guyana Press Association as the professional organisation that endorsed her application to pursue the in-depth course.
The process of endorsement emerged out of discussions between members of the GPA's executive and the Indian High Commission.
The course is designed to familiarise the participants with topical issues that are so characteristic of the developing world.
It sketches out the linkages between development, communication and media, and provides significant inputs in development, communication, international relations, globalisation and national development, global trade and economy.