On June 29th 2016, Never Again Rwanda gathered 20 young writers, in Kigali, to have a discussion on ‘The role that citizen journalism can play in protecting and promoting human rights’. The youth talked about how to use different platforms such as Twitter and Instagram to gather and report news and also to bring to attention the different issues in their communities.
The youth discussions on the role of citizen journalism centered on writing, critical analysis, reporting on human rights and to voice violations in their communities. During the discussions, the youth also agreed to use blogs and other social media platforms; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram to report on human rights issues from the perspectives of ordinary citizens.
The discussions centered mainly on: ‘How ‘Citizen Journalism’ can influence decision makers and create change’, ‘How to develop compelling messages and write relevant stories’ and ‘How to pitch stories to a media outlet’
The outcome of this discussion was the establishment of a “Youth Citizen Reporters” group. The purpose of the group would be to find stories in their communities, that are human rights related or of interest to the youth, that they can report on and their stories would then be published by Never Again on their Youth For Change website (www.yfcrwanda.com).