International Conference of the African Journalism Education Network

The KAS Media Programme Sub-Saharan Africa supported this year's international conference of the African Journalism Education Network (AJEN). The topic was “Sustainable Journalism Education: Rising through the tide of a media and planet in crisis.”

AJEN President Prof. Franz Krüger and Vice President Dr. Nancy Booker welcomed more than 70 guests who had travelled to the Aga Khan University from 15 countries.

Hendrik Sittig, Director of the Media Programme, explained in his welcome speech why it is so important to discuss the future of journalism education: “Journalism Education is the Foundation for ensuring the media landscape in every country.”

How can journalism and journalism education be practised sustainably? How should climate change be reported on and how can journalists best impart their knowledge? These and other questions were addressed in various discussions and analysed from several perspectives.

In a keynote speech, Prof Nicholas Oguge spoke about climate change and its impact on the media and journalism. Prof. Dr Claudia Nothelle from the Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences and former programme director of Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg then also spoke on this complex topic and emphasised once again how important it is in climate journalism to provide sufficient context so that the topics are properly understood by the recipients.

Sebastian Groth, the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Kenya, took a look into the future and spoke about developments in journalism and journalistic work. For him, progress in technologies such as artificial intelligence is a particularly important development. This progress could endanger journalism: “I think this new technology is threatening the core of journalism which is credibility.”

The Lead Editor of the Nation Media Group in Nairobi, Harry Misiko, explained in his presentation how artificial intelligence can also advance journalism. He showed how artificial intelligence can be used in investigative research or in the creation of images and videos.