MMC| Achivment

Details

Major Achievements

The achievements of MMC since 1995 need to be seen as to how the journalists and people at the grass root level have benefited from its work. The major achievements of MMC fall under five different categories, namely

• development of community journalists;

• capacity building of (particularly of rural) journalists;

• improvement of the working conditions of the local journalists;

• making journalism more human rights and good governance oriented ;

• improvement of the access of grass root people to media to know and to inform about their issues

Development of Community Journalist

MMC developed community journalists from grass root level including women from two geographical areas (Barisal/Patuakhali and Noakhali). A section of them have received TOT and conducted training for others. Some local journalists have received scope for placement with different dailies thanks to their reporting skills.

Capacity Building of Journalists

The journalists learned reporting skills, writing of news, issue-based reporting and editing. Knowledge about gender, human rights, good governance, democracy, environment, etc. were also part of training. The trained journalists are now able to publish news and provide opinions on human rights, development, democracy, good governance, gender and environment through newspapers. They can identify issues for reporting from grass root level.

The trained journalists are now able to identify gender disparity and can write on equal participation of man and women in the male-dominated social system from grass root perspective. Efficiency in reporting on social and geographical environment has increased. They are now also capable to write on issues related to local government.

The local journalists are showing interest for using Internet, website and computer facility. Demand for establishing library by district level journalists is increased. MMC now publishes fortnightly “Lok Sanghbad” and “Metho Barta” from Barisal and Noakhali respectively to create a room for practice and earning for emerging community journalist. At the same time, they function as a voice for the rural people.

Improvement of the Working Conditions of Journalists

MMC has managed to generate collaborations and networking among journalists. It also created positive attitude of press houses to develop/reformulate guidelines of local newspaper for its staff members. MMC mobilized journalists to advocate for laws against repression of journalists. MMC collects information on repression of journalists and also advocates for freedom of press and right to information and thus repeal of Official Secrecy Act for better transparency in the society. Finally, MMC works together with specialized institutions to help journalist access required legal services.

Making Journalism more Human Rights and Good Governance oriented

Journalists are working in the field of human rights and good governance. They benefit from the library of MMC. News related to human rights and good governance in local newspapers is now published.

Access of Grass root People to Media

In the geographical areas covered by MMC, the grass-root people including UP members are now better aware of violation of human rights. With cooperation of trained grass-root journalists, the national level journalists are getting information on remote areas of the country. People's interest in establishing Mass Information Center and community radio is increasing. The media is now willing to gather demand-based information and publish news on local problems and possibilities. As a result, people have now access to information related to human rights and good governance. The general people and victims of remote areas are now interested to provide information on different local issues. After publication of news on public importance, the local administration is now more inclined to take steps for community benefits.

In the past, MMC have worked more like an organization for journalists than for grass root people. Being more print-media oriented, the overwhelming majority of the rural people presently reached through folk and electronic media could not be addressed by MMC. The regional concentration of its work centering on community journalism has made its advocacy initiative less visible.