In preparation for its planned publication of newsletter, the Bangsamoro Development Agency Central Mindanao (BDA-CenMin) Region held seminar-workshop on basic journalism on November 29-30, 2013 at Ittihadun Nisa Foundation (INFo) Training Center, Simuay, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao.

Participated by 24 aspiring writers from BDA Central Mindanao region, the activity provided inputs on basic news writing, feature writing, editorial writing, copy reading, layouting and web writing.

In his opening remarks, Prof. Hashim Manticayan, Regional Manager of BDA Central Mindanao, said that the participants are publication staff of the region that is tasked for the development of the newsletter that the region is planning. “They need to be trained and developed further on writing for our publication to be more efficient and effective, said Manager Manticayan.

During the workshop, participants underwent series of workshops in developing their writing skills. Resource persons were Mr. Norodin M. Makalay, contributor to MindaNews and Mindanao Examiner and Nurhatima Aljani-Masdoc, online blogger and former Editor-in-Chief of Bagwis, Official Publication of Mindanao State University (MSU)-General Santos.

Among the concerns raised during the workshop is how writing for news especially for BDA is different from writing in media.

In his session, Mr. Makalay suggested for a common vocabulary for BDA to use for its writing to ensure that words used are sensitive and in accordance to what BDA wants to tell to its readers.

Ustadz Mohammad S. Yacob, BDA Executive Director graced the activity. He expressed his support and appreciation to the region for organizing such training. ”This training is instrumental in helping the Bangsamoro build good image through writing”, according to Ustadz Yacob. ”Linkage with the media people is very much important to provide correct information to the people”, he pointed out.