About the Course

All around the globe, the media report on local, national and international events affecting the working lives of women and men. However, due to budgetary and organizational constraints, many news organizations lack labour specialists among their staff correspondents, and many media workers have had no opportunity to acquire in-depth knowledge of workers' rights and related labour issues.

This accounts for distorted information and the missing link often perceived in media coverage between the moral outrage expressed by the public and the facts that caused it.

To bridge this gap, the International Training Centre of the ILO (ITC-ILO), based in Turin, Italy, has designed a training calling the attention of journalists and other media professionals to the direct relevance of international labour standards (ILS) drawn up and overseen by the ILO to accurate, responsible, fair and objective media reporting which can further understanding in the interests of human welfare. Public understanding can, in turn, strengthen the application of ILS at local level so as to advance freedom of expression, freedom of association and respect for fundamental rights at work.

The course consists of three phases:

Phase 1: Pre-course preparation

Participants are required to select - from print, electronic or other media - one local news story (of at least 400 words) on labour/social affairs, preferably but not necessarily on freedom of association and to submit it before 19 July 2009, following the instructions to be found in the video below. These articles are to be used as case studies during the residential phase of the course.

Participants are also required to read the booklet 'Rules of the Game:A brief introduction to international labour standards' in preparation for the course. The booklet is downloadable from: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---normes/documents/publication/wcms_108393.pdf 

Phase 2: Face-to-face instruction (5 days)

• The link between freedom of expression, freedom of association, and the promotion of human and workers' rights
• Introduction to the ILO and its ILS system, with a special focus on the standards pertaining to freedom of association, and its relevance to the world of work
• The potential and relevance of ILS for media work
• Introduction to the ILS databases (ILOLEX, APPLIS, LibSynd and NATLEX), which will be used extensively during the course
• How to incorporate ILS into journalism, with concrete case studies mainly based on stories submitted by the participants before the course
• Experience sharing of labour and social reporting
• The role and function of the ILO's Department of Communications and Public Information (DCOMM)

 Phase 3: Online

Using the knowledge and skills acquired in the first two phases, participants are required to prepare a story on labour rights. They should send first an outline of the proposed stories (in 4/5 bullet points) to course facilitators. Facilitators comment proposals. Then, participants should finalize their stories.

Stories are evaluated by course facilitators and then posted on the course Web site upon authors’ authorizations. To further broaden their learning experience, participants are encouraged to share their work with their peers via the Web site.