Journalists for Human Rights is pleased to announce a 4-month extension of our Indigenous Reporters Program 2020 remote media training in northwestern Ontario. This extension will double the program’s duration to 8-months and taking the program into 2021.
This program provides free online media training to Indigenous people living in Northwestern Ontario. Participants can join open workshops and be paired with experienced media mentors, including Anishinaabe podcaster Ryan McMahon and French/Cree/Iroquois journalist Brandi Morin.
JHR aims to follow-up on the programs successes, which were reported on by the Globe and Mail’s Willow Fiddler, herself an alumnus of JHR’s Indigenous Reporters Program. Many program participants were successful in producing media with the program’s support with stories published by national and local outlets, including the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, APTN and the Kenora Miner & News.
The Indigenous Reporters Program works to increase the quantity and quality of Indigenous voices and stories in media in Canada, with the aim of ensuring that Indigenous people across Canada can access their human rights. The northwestern Ontario community media training is a key component of that effort, making media more accessible in a region where diverse and isolated First Nations have particularly little media representation.
The program extension will run from March 1 to June 30, 2021.
The extended program will be accepting new participants, as well as continuing to offer training and mentorship those already registered in 2020.
Those interested in participation can register at http://bit.ly/IRP2021form
Indigenous (First Nations, Métis, Inuit) people of all ages, living in the northwestern Ontario catchment area, are eligible. There is no cost to participation.
The online training program is an evolution of the in-community media training that JHR has offered to First Nations in northern Ontario since a 2013 pilot program created in partnership with Wawatay Communications Society. In 2020, Covid-19 restrictions made in-community training impossible and JHR pivoted to offering the training remotely.
This program is funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation.