Activities · Workshop 1 of 8
Five days in Nairobi training Sudanese journalists to produce podcasts on transitional justice and human rights. Participants recorded six episodes.
From 14 to 18 September 2024, Echo of Justice brought Sudanese journalists and media makers together at the Televzyon Hub in Nairobi for five days of training in podcast production. It was the first workshop in our Transitional Justice Journalism series, which gives participants the knowledge and tools to produce media that puts transitional justice and human rights at the centre.
After an introduction to the Echo of Justice programme by Lodan Tariq, Daniel opened with the fundamentals: what a podcast is, the main formats (interviews, conversations, non-fiction storytelling), how to define a target audience, and why localising content matters for reaching it. The session also covered planning a successful podcast and using shared hashtags for promotion.
Hossam Hilali, working with Ater Magazine, then led a session on scriptwriting for talk, storytelling and documentary formats. Participants followed a script from the first idea and brainstorm through the timeline to the closing, looked at how sound effects and music carry a story, and drafted their own scripts in pairs.
Mohamed Al-Taj covered filming interviews: choosing the right location, the rule of thirds, camera angles, and the research and question preparation that make for meaningful conversations.
In the afternoon, Ahmed Hikmat walked through the stages of creative production: microphones, soundproofing, and recording and editing software; improving sound quality and fixing common recording problems; publishing through podcast platforms and RSS feeds; and building a community of listeners.
Daniel returned with a session on fake and misleading news and its effect on social stability, focused on the Sudanese context, with practical ways to verify information. Mohammed Azahary connected this to transitional justice, arguing for awareness-raising media that helps achieve justice and prevent violations from recurring.
Yousra Fouad closed the day on journalism ethics: the responsibilities of a journalist, handling sensitive information, and the rules that protect credibility and integrity in citizen and investigative journalism alike.
Participants put the week into practice, working in groups to record their own episodes:
| Episode | Produced by |
|---|---|
| Women on Death Row First episode of a five-part series | Samir and I’tizaz |
| The Impact of War on Youth | Shashog and Hossam |
| Mental Health and Trauma | Dominica |
| Blame Not on Me On FGM and early marriage | Fatima, Boutros and Shalo |
| Peace and Justice First episode of an eight-part series: “Transitional Justice in Sudan: Why Now?” | Hossam and Hussain |
| Name and Meaning | Iyas and Riham |
Sadiq Yassin led a session on attracting and keeping an audience through quality content and active engagement, including comments and social media, followed by a group brainstorm on growing listenership. The six finished episodes were then presented, with feedback from the studio coordinator on production quality.
The workshop closed with an open discussion. Participants saw media as central to accountability and transparency in a transitional justice process, through:
Does Sudanese media understand transitional justice? The group’s answer was no.
They pointed to state-controlled media that reflects government narratives, little awareness of why transitional justice matters, the suppression of free media, a divided media landscape biased against victims, security services’ control over the press, and the absence of transitional justice from journalism curricula.
Echo of Justice offers participants who want to keep working with us:
Season One of the Echo of Justice podcast: conversations with experts on mental health, law and trauma in times of war.