Nepal Investigative Multimedia Journalism Network (NIMJN), conducted the fifth of its six trainings on ‘Reporting on Human Trafficking and Human Rights using Multimedia Tools’ for journalists in Nepalgunj, Nepal, with support from Australian Aid. A total of 20 journalists from all over Lumbini Province gathered in Nepalgunj for the two-and-a-half-day training from June 14 to June 16, 2024.

​ The two-and-a-half-day residential training consisted of sessions ranging in topics from introduction to investigative reporting and ethics of journalists to anti-trafficking laws, stories of survivors, use of multimedia tools, and safety of journalists. Nirmala Paudel from Shakti Samuha and Keshav Koirala from Maiti Nepal were invited as local guest speakers, to help the participants learn about the status of human trafficking and human rights in Lumbini Province through the local actors directly involved in the work. Other trainers included Dinesh Regmi, a senior NIMJN fellow and a journalist reporting on migration and human trafficking issues, Shuphal Kafle, and Rajneesh Bhandari, NIMJN’s chief editor.

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The training also included a lot of interactive group work where the participants devised their investigative story ideas, formed hypotheses on them, and discussed how they could be realistically pursued. They also each made a one-minute video to utilize the mobile journalism and multimedia storytelling skills that they had learned during the training. The videos they produced and edited were presented on the final day of the training. The participants also learned about online tools for data visualization like Datawrapper and practiced on preparing interactive maps based on Nepal’s population.

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Overall, the participants comprised 12 female and 8 male journalists from various media outlets. After the training completion, they can apply for the NIMJN Human Trafficking Reporting Fellowship, under which 2 journalists from Lumbini Province will have the opportunity to produce an investigative multimedia story on human trafficking and human rights under the mentorship and editorial support of NIMJN.