Good journalism on development and international cooperation issues: what to do, what not to do

The issues of international development and cooperation are becoming increasingly complex, urgent and interrelated. At the same time, new technologies allow more real-time news and different sources even in remote countries. For these reasons, journalists must acquire specific skills, thematic and methodological knowledge in order to shed light on apparently distant issues which are instead extremely interesting for the life of most people.

The issue is particularly relevant because it is in conjunction with the European year for development announced by the EU for 2015. In particular the proposed panel, lies within an international path launched by the European project DevReporter Network, which aims at improving communication on the subject in France, Spain and Italy and to strengthen the relationship between journalists and international cooperation operators. Within this project an analysis ebook of how these issues are covered by the media of three regions (Piedmont, Rhone Alpes and Catalonia) has been developed. Furthermore, a drafting of a 10 point document on the principles of Dev Journalism is going to be written and a DevReporter Network press award was launched at the end of January 2015.