40 Btv reporters graduate from France24 training

Almost 40 Botswana Television ( Btv) presenters and stand- up reporters graduated from a ten- day training course conducted by the France24 team this October.

The training designed to develop the reporters’ professional skills culminated with a presentation of Diploma certificates presided over by Ambassador Laurence Beau on the 21st of October at the French Residence.

Acclaimed France24 journalist Mark Owen shared his passion and transmitted his expertise to this group of journalists. Beau explained that the training is part of a partnership that started in 2015 between Btv and Frace24. The partnership gave birth to a more ambitious agreement in 2018 that allowed France24 to be broadcast on the Botswana national television thereby making France24 the only foreign channel to be watched for free in Botswana. It also paved the way to broader digital offers and to the creation of tailor- made trainings for the Btv teams. The aim of these trainings is to strengthen journalists’ skills as Btv management mulls over the creation of a news channel.

Beau expressed the desire to see the partnership between Btv and France24 growing to the extent that France24 can partner and assist digital projects initiated by young Batswana talents.

“These shared projects are very powerful to strengthen the links between our two countries,” she said. In an interview with this publication, France24 Development Manager, for Anglophone Africa, Apophia Komuhisha, who incidentally negotiated and bagged this deal, confirmed that the next training, which will focus on editorial management, will be this December.

So far, almost 100 journalists have been trained since 2018 under this partnership deal.

Beau also revealed another partnership between France24 and Alliance Francaise of Gaborone that is about to be finalised under which France24 will be broadcast in the Alliance Francaise’s premises on a daily basis to give learners, team and aficionados access to news based on fact. Present at the award ceremony were also Deputy Permanent Secretary – Information and Broadcasting in the Ministry of Presidential Affairs, Oshinka Tsiang; Director, Broadcasting Services Raymond Tsheko as well as Joel Thuto, the Btv General Manager.

In a separate interview, Tsheko reiterated the imperative of building a well- oiled team that will not only compete with the best in the world, but will also match the quality of the state- of- theart Btv infrastructure, which he said is currently under- utilised.