The Africa-China Reporting Project in partnership with Inkyfada, held the North Africa-China Journalism Online Training Workshop for journalists in Tunisia, Algeria, Libya and Morocco, 5-6 July 2022. The journalists were awarded reporting grants to investigate North Africa-China relations.

This resourceful two-day workshop contributes to the important work of bridging the gap, not only in the linguistic reportage of China’s engagement with Africa, but also in equipping journalists with the necessary skills and information as they continue to develop their investigative stories.

From the thematic meta-analysis and understandings of the complexities within China-North Africa relations presented by Lina Benabdallah, China in the Global South and Africa-China resources presented by Cobus van Staden, China in the Francophone community presented by Geraud Neema; to the practical insightful tools and skills for more impactful reporting, such as Data journalism and data visualization presented by Malek Khadhraoui, Navigating Cyber Security presented by Ghaith Hammadi, Journalism Pitching, Writing, and Story Development presented by Desmond Latham and Paula Fray; it is an enriching training building capacity and supporting journalists globally.

Day 1

The panel of the first day of the training workshop included:

• Lina Benabdallah, Assistant Professor at Wake Forest University, USA – North Africa overview and discussion
• Paula Fray, Chief executive officer at Fray College, Owner of Frayintermedia – Journalistic writing and feedback to journalists’ publications
• Desmond Latham, Chief executive officer at Frayintermedia – Journalistic writing and feedback to journalists’ publications

North Africa overview and discussion – Lina Benabdallah

Lina Benabdallah, Assistant Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA unpacks the history of North Africa-China relations with reference to the individual countries in the region, presenting an overview of economic, security and cultural relations.

The presentation includes:

• Important issues and themes in reporting on the North Africa region;
• Reporting gaps within published features and investigations on China in North Africa
• Myths and biases of Chinese workers and China construction projects in North Africa
• Cultural perceptions and interactions

For the full presentation by Lina Benabdallah, see video below:

Journalistic writing and feedback to journalists’ publications – Paula Fray and Desmond Latham

Paula Fray, Chief executive officer at Fray College and Owner of Frayintermedia, and Desmond Latham, Chief executive officer at Frayintermedia provide essential proposal writing tools, review the published features of the North Africa journalists, giving editorial feedback and substantive analysis of their story development.

For the full presentation by Paula Fray and Desmond Latham, see video below:

Day 2

The Africa-China Reporting Project in partnership with Inkyfada, held the North Africa-China Journalism Online Training Workshop for journalists in Tunisia, Algeria, Libya and Morocco, 5-6 July 2022. The journalists were awarded reporting grants to investigate North Africa-China relations.

This resourceful two-day workshop contributes to the important work of bridging the gap, not only in the linguistic reportage of China’s engagement with Africa, but also in equipping journalists with the necessary skills and information as they continue to develop their investigative stories.

The panel of the second day of the training workshop included:

• Cobus van Staden, Co-founder of China-Global South Project – China in the Global South and Africa-China resources
• Malek Khadhraoui, Executive Director at Association Alkhatt and Publishing Director at Inkyfada – Data journalism and data visualisation
• Ghaith Hammadi, developer and expert in digital security – Cyber Security
• Geraud Neema, Francophone Editor, China-Global South Project – Francophone-China reporting overview and discussion

China in the Global South and Africa-China resources – Cobus van Staden

Cobus van Staden, Co-founder of China-Global South Project, unpacks the context of China’s world view and the perspective towards Global South countries, denouncing some myths and assumptions, and presenting resources for journalists and researchers working on Africa-China relations.

 The presentation includes:

• Understanding the Africa-China relationship from a comparative regional perspective
• Resources and leading centres on Africa-China relations and African perspectives
• Emerging trends and myths in Africa-China relations; challenging prevailing narratives
  • Development
  • Diplomatic relations
  • Debt
  • Ukraine
  • Peace and security
  • Multinational organizations
  • Party to Party exchanges
  • Internet provision

For the full presentation by Cobus van Staden, see video below:                                        

Data journalism and data visualisation – Malek Khadhraoui

Malek Khadhraoui, Executive Director at Al Khatt and publishing director of Inkyfada presents the significance of using investigative journalism techniques, provides guidelines to good editorial practices and important safety rules.

The presentation includes:

• Visualizing data for effective storytelling
• Various tools for visual story telling in investigative journalism
• Examples of effective visual storytelling; phenomena at scale; hierarchy visualization; interest and influence visualization

For the full presentation by Malek Khadhraoui, see video below: 

Cyber Security – Ghaith Hammadi

Journalists around the globe are increasingly being targeted, experience surveillance and cyber-attacks, limitations to press freedom and often detained and killed for their work. Ghaith Hammadi, Developer and Expert at Inkyfada provides knowledge and expertise to the essential digital safety rules and tools, how to ensure secure communications, risk analysis and threat mitigation.

The presentation includes:

• Safety tools for back-ups and storage of data 
• Password generators and managers
• Virus scanning tools and support

For the full presentation by Ghaith Hammadi, see video below:

Francophone-China reporting overview and discussion – Geraud Neema

Geraud Neema, Francophone Editor at China-Global South Project, presents the Francophone-China reporting overview and analysis, understandings from the first engagements between Chinese and French communities, to the evolving landscape of French-Chinese media coverage, the inter-related linkages between geopolitics, perceptions and agenda setting, and Chinese business cooperation and investments on the African continent.

For the full presentation by Geraud Neema, see video below:

To see the full Workshop Training videos see videos below:

• North Africa-China Journalism Training Workshop 2022 – Day 1
• North Africa-China Journalism Training Workshop 2022 – Day 2

See more workshop training presentations and reporting resources:

• Journalistic Writing Tools and Review by Desmond Latham
• Data journalism and data visualisation by Malek Khadhraoui
• Cyber Security by Ghaith Hammadi
• The China Global South Project
• Projet Afrique Chine
• Akhbaralsin-Africia
• China Africa Research Initiative SAIS-CARI
• Global Development Policy Centre
• AidData
• Green Finance & Development Centre
• Discourse Power
• Institute for Global Dialogue
• South African Institute of International Affairs
• Afro-Sino Centre of International Relations
• Bridge Beijing