CJ MALAYSIA BORNEO TRAINING CENTRE

AFFILIATION…….Thomas Loudon, CEO of VJ Movement and Marcel Chong Symbolises the Affiliation.

By : CJ MEDIA

CITIZEN JOURNALISTS Malaysia’s Borneo Chapter, under the leadership of Marcel Chong as the Chapter Head, has opened a new training and liaison office in Kota Kinabalu.

The office which is located at Level 10, Wisma Merdeka will become the training hub and operation room for the Citizen Journalists in Sabah and Sarawak.

The Borneo Chapter will be conducting Citizen Journalism trainings extensively in the months to come on news reporting, news writing, video camera operation and video editing, specially catered to citizens (communities) of Sabah and Sarawak, who want to participate in the empowerment of their communities through news gathering process.

A minimal fee of RM100.00 will be charged as a commitment fee for this 4 days training, which will be held during the weekends only.

At the moment, Borneo Chapter has been constantly contributing news for community news portal, Komunitikini.com and the Citizen Journalists Malaysia portal, CJ.MY.

The Borneo Chapter has conducted 5 trainings to date in various locations in Sabah. The recent Citizen Journalism training in Sabah took place in Sandakan, and 10 new Citizen Journalists has been trained.

Chong said that the Citizen Journalism training is expected to be organized every month at Wisma Merdeka. New participants will be trained and groomed to become Citizen Journalists, who will be reporting on various community issues and events in Sabah and Sarawak respectively.

As Borneo Chapter Head, he is also tasked to manage and build a network of Citizen Journalists across Borneo.

PROUD…..From Left, Sharon Moshavi, Vice-President ICFJ; Marcel Chong, Nancy P. Frye, Vice President, ICFJ..

Most of the Citizen Journalists from Sabah and Sarawak are volunteers and have contributed almost 300 articles and 80 videos.

Citizen Journalists Malaysia is a volunteer’s movement founded in November 2008. The movement has been actively training and grooming ordinary citizens to report news and events within their community.

The movement believes that vigorous, independent media is crucial in improving the human condition thus working mutually with the International Center For Journalists or ICFJ at Washington D.C. USA for international support and also an affiliation to VJ movement of Netherlands.

Currently, the movement has 4 chapters which oversees Northern, Central, Southern region in Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo region which comprises Sabah and Sarawak. Each chapter is managed by a chapter head.