Reporting on religious issues has seen little coverage especially in Sub-Saharan African.

 Professor Debra Mason, Director and Professor of religion at the University of Missouri in the United States is worried there is very much coverage of religion, because it is challenging.

The area has become complicated   and often fraught with difficulty because it is difficult to get data and facts to back ones stories.

But Prof. Mason maintains it is important to be covered and the job of journalists to clear up issues for the public.

She was speaking at 5-day Media training in Cape-Town, South Africa.

 “ We don’t see very much of it done because its complicated, it’s a challenge so we don’t have enough people who are focused on doing it and it takes a lot of experience to do it well”, she said.

The Religious News Foundation (RNF), a non-governmental organization, therefore assembled 25 journalists across 15 African countries from Sub-Saharan Africa to be trained for improved coverage on the subject.

Participants were also trained on appropriate ways to cover the vulnerable minorities in our communities.

Director of Global Strategy of RNF, Brian Pellot is worried reportage on vulnerable minorities in African societies are often compromised and overlooked for political reporting

 “ A lot of stories coming out of the world and not only sub-Sahara Africa demonise these communities which lead to more harm when really our job as  journalists is to tell their stories”

According to him, use of inappropriate terminologies and terms of phrases by journalists tend to skew stories in one direction or the other.

This situation, he says can be changed with journalists equipping themselves with in-depth knowledge on religious reporting.

 “So it’s just a matter of preparing yourself before you report on these areas. We are hoping that journalists will cover these issues in a balance way that doesn’t lead to more harm”.

The training programme was sponsored by Arcus Foundation and the Heinrich Boll Stiftung Southern Africa.