A workshop on “Mobilizing of Digital Journalists” organized by the Free Media Movement was conducted on December 3 and 4 at the Ocean View Hotel in Colombo.

The workshop was attended by several journalists actively involved in the digital media industry engaged in various social media networks such as websites, blogs, YouTube and Facebook.

The workshop was organized based on the recommendations of a survey titled ‘A small scale study of Digital Media’, conducted in collaboration with the Free Media Movement and the Professional Journalists Association.

Free Media Movement Convener C. Dodawatte, Secretary Lasantha de Silva, Treasurer Taha Muzammil and Executive member Attorney Jagath Liyanarachchi and the Press Complaints Commission’s Complaints Officer Kamal Liyanarachchi partnered as resourced personnel while Dhaneshi Yatawera of the Free Media movement facilitated the workshop.

The first session of the workshop was titled “Digital Media and Law” while the second session was an open forum discussion pertaining to the challenges faced by digital journalists and their responses to these challenges.

At this workshop, the digital journalists discussed various issues and challenges they face and accepted the need to be organized as an immediate step towards resolving their issues in the industry.

The first session of the second day was focused on creating awareness on “media ethics and digital media”. The second session of the day was allocated to identifying the way forward.

International Federation of Journalist (IFJ) Union to Union sponsored the workshop.