Yesterday we told you about the investigative journalism training hosted by the Global Financial Integrity Fellowship Program and the Belize network of NGO's. That training came to an end today where over a dozen journalists attended. We spoke with organizers at the end of it this morning:
Marla Magana Cansino, Executive Manager BNN
"Well I think a big word for today and throughout the training is "public accountability" and what BNN is trying to do is we are trying to engage Journalists who play a crucial role in society, communicators, investigators you know bringing key issues that are very important in our society in terms of accountability and transparency. So we really hope that today's session has been beneficial to journalists in Belize because it is very important in their role as watch dogs in society."
"It is very important that we provide them with the training to be able to report on some of these issues I think the topics have been very informative in terms of covering financial crimes and environmental crimes and all these different issues that are very important to report on because like I said they inform the public about issues that are happening that sometimes we know nothing about so I think they do play as I say that role in holding governments and organisations and companies accountable of these different acts of crime and corruption that often times we do not hear about."
Claudia Helms, Director, Global Financial Integrity
"So we have been working in Belize since last year and what we are trying to do as part of this workshop is to allow journalists to know more about illicit financial flows and how we take this as GFI around the whole region. We normally work with public sectors, civil society, journalists. So it is very important that society actually understands financial crimes which sometimes can be very technical and complex but trainings like this and conferences that address these matters is actually a great way for everyone to understand more and to actually use the methods and tools that are out there in the public source and they can use it way better."
"So the media in Belize has been doing a great job at addressing financial crimes and other matters as well but since these matters are very technical, sometimes having a regional overview helps them understand more how other countries have been tackling them. The important part of this training was to bring not only expertise in the region but also the exchange of information among journalists and also the great training done by BNN, and Holly will give them the tools exactly not only from a Belizean perspective but also what are the trends and risks and how financial crimes are being addressed in the world and region as well."
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