Building media knowhow to strengthen rural voices in Bhutan
An UNDEF project in Bhutan works to strengthen local news coverage and build relationships between journalists and rural communities, which make up almost 70 per cent of the population yet lack access to government agencies and ways to influence policy. Implemented by the Journalists鈥� Association of Bhutan, the project encourages local villages to engage in active reporting on local issues, training journalists and community members alike to report both in mainstream news outlets and social media -- thus counterbalancing the concentration of media in the capital. Since 2019, the project has conducted community media workshops in rural districts Dagana, Lhuentse, Bumthang, Gasa, Mongar, Trongsa, and Haa, including on ways to engage with traditional media technology, how to disseminate news systematically using social media, understanding government social media policies. The project builds on a previous UNDEF project with the Journalists鈥� Association of Bhutan to support capacity building of member journalists.
