By Lyte Ali

Mangochi, May 17, Mana: Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency (CSAT) has appealed to community journalists in the Eastern Region to write stories focusing on parliamentary proceedings to keep communities aware of issues good governance.

Citizen Engagement Manager for CSAT Moffat Mphweya Phiri said CSAT established that community radios do not focus on what Members of Parliament (MPs) discuss when parliament is in session.

Phiri made the call on Thursday in Mangochi at the end of a media training on Access to Information Law under Parliamentary Support Programme.  

"As CSAT, we saw a gap that most of the community radios in the country do not pay attention on parliamentary reporting. We note that the proceedings are mainly covered by few national radio stations,” he added.

He said that CSAT therefore felt the need to engage community radios to raise awareness on the need to adequately report on parliamentary proceedings.

“We felt it necessary to empower community journalists so that they should have knowledge on Parliamentary Support Programme and how to access as well as report parliamentary proceedings," the Citizen Engagement Manager said.

Phiri added that the media training was aimed at identifying and addressing barriers in accessing parliamentary information to reach communities in rural areas.

In her remarks, Head of News at Dzimwe Community Radio in Mangochi, Maureen Kawerama commended CSAT for the training which she described as an eye opener.

She said that for a long time Dzimwe Community Radio were left out in parliamentary reporting, adding that her media house did not know procedures to follow in accessing parliamentary proceedings.

"As community journalists, we felt left out on parliamentary reporting as we did not know how to access information in parliament. This training has helped us know procedures to follow when accessing information on parliamentary proceedings,” she added.

Kawerama therefore said that community radios will be able to cover parliamentary proceeding to keep communities well informed on issues of national importance.

Journalists from different community radio houses based in Mangochi, Balaka and Machinga attended the training.