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10 Feb 2014
February 10, 2014<br />
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The Jordan Media Institute (JMI) and the AFP Foundation organized a conference titled “Reporting Economic Good Governance”. The conference was part of a consortium led by BBC Media Action implementing the EU-funded Media Neighborhood project.<br />
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The conference, which was held at JMI premises, targeted students in journalism and focused on the role of media in implementing economic good governance.<br />
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Speakers included journalists and civil society activists and university professors. Keynote speeches and panel discussions covered subjects such as the media as a watchdog for public accounts, the role of the media in implementing corporate governance, and why good corporate governance is important to economic development.<br />
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Dr. Basim Tweissi, JMI’s Dean, said that this conference was a great opportunity for media and journalism students to meet distinguished experts and academics in the field of economic governance.<br />
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He also stressed on the importance of maintaining a high standard of journalism and adopting correct practices including balance, objectivity, integrity and, most of all, accuracy.<br />
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“Economic journalism should be a tool for public financial accountability, and should not turn into a channel for official statements, or a means for settling accounts between political forces” he added.<br />
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"This event is organized under the EU funded Media Neighborhood project that aims to contribute to the strengthening of the professional capacity of journalists, improving the quality of reporting and establishing and sustaining journalist networks in the region. Freedom of media plays a role in strengthening good governance and sustaining democracies and thus one of the European Union's top priorities," said Dr Joanna Wronecka, Ambassador of the European Union to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.<br />
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Jean-Michel Duffrène, Media Neighborhood Team Leader added : “ ‘Economic Good Governance’ is the theme of this student conference but journalists and in this case the journalism students need to understand that reporting economic (good but also) bad governance is an integral part of their job; it is about accountability and it is an area that goes in hand with investigative journalism”<br />
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JMI’s goal is to offer the best standards of journalistic practice with an emphasis on the traditional aspects of journalism such as writing and reporting, ethics and community issues.