TRF's 'Writing and Reporting News' course: "Keeping the essence of journalism"

By Juan Calcena

Last week myself and 13 other journalists from all over the world had the chance to take part in Thomson Reuters Foundation’s “Writing and Reporting News” course in London. I’ve learned, above all, that journalism speaks only one language.

People tend to say that maths and music are universal languages. After the experience I had travelling to London and getting to know such wonderful colleagues from Egypt, Uganda, Hong Kong, Colombia, Brazil, Slovakia, Italy, China, Vietnam and Myanmar, for me, the press and journalism is now a global language too.

Aside from learning new skills, we had the opportunity to take look at Reuters news reporting structure, which I consider to be a direct, simple and accurate form of journalism.

We also discussed ethics and I personally came to realise that this thing we do must be a passion that we carry in ourselves. Underpayment is “classic” in journalism worldwide, for example.

But that’s not all: as journalists we search out the truth and try to convey it in a simple way for people who need to know what’s happening, supporting freedom – which I think is the most beautiful word that exists.

I’ve also had the chance of explaining how we handle news in Paraguay, my country to others on the course.

Doing all these things in London, such a gorgeous city, made me gain much experience, thanks to our wonderful teachers, Lisa Essex and Mathieu Robbins (Thomson Reuters Foundation trainers) 

But what I appreciated the most is that when I came back to work, I was able to apply a new view to my work, refreshing it in every paragraph and keeping a new perspective for everything.