Welcome to the Maldives, where journalists that report the news on national cable TV are as young as 19. Wow!

We are in the capital island of Malé — a maze of tiny streets where thousands of mopeds can run you over if you’re not careful. This is also the home of President Nasheed and the government — and where faces of politicians occupy 95% of the news.

Our first workshop is being carried out at DhiTV – one of the first independent news channels. We’ve worked with journalists, editors, producers and news presenters. The mix has been a challenge in catering to each of the needs, but it’s great to see everyone excited and motivated to learn – regardless of whether the specific skills apply to their area of expertise.

The focus: video shooting and editing skills, basics of story telling, story structure, media ethics and online tools for TV.

The challenges: a lot of our students have had little to no training. Newscasts revolve around politics. Stories last for 5 minutes, when they could easily be 2, language barrier when it comes to talking about script writing. Also, not all of the journalists can be present for the workshops.