BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

RADIO Televisyen Brunei (RTB) and Reuters are looking at the possibility of jointly producing structured programmes aligned with the strategy of the state broadcaster.

The Director of RTB, Hj Md Suffian Hj Bungsu, revealed this in his speech yesterday during the certificate presentation ceremony for the “Newscasters: Challenges and the Future” course, a joint collaboration between RTB and Reuters.

Present to hand over the certificates to 19 RTB newscasters was the Deputy Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office, Dato Paduka Hj Abd Wahab Juned at the Radisson Hotel.

Lloyd Watson, Reuters course instructor, told the local media that the wire agency could produce “tailor-made news” for RTB.

“Reuters could make specific programmes for RTB that can be of interest to Brunei. For example, Reuters has a business background, so it can help tailor business news for RTB that could be relevant to the oil (industry) and Brunei,” he said.

RTB and Reuters can also jointly produce these programmes that are tailored for Brunei, he noted.

During the course, Reuters enhanced the knowledge of state broadcasters in news reading and casting.

“They were very keen, enthusiastic and seemed to appreciate what we were telling them. We imparted it (knowledge) to them and let’s see what difference it can make,” Watson said.

He lauded the participants for their interest, hoping that the knowledge they learnt will guide and help them on their job.

In his speech, the Director of RTB described the course as a “very useful knowledge enrichment course specifically designed for newscasters and news presentation”.

“Probing analytically into the daily impacts of our products and services, we realised there is an urgent need for RTB to continuously work hard in strengthening the professionalism and creativity of our staff,” he said.

He said that RTB newscasters are vital because they provide government news service to the public.

He said the RTB saw it important to develop the capacity of its staff in a bid to further deliver quality news with authority.

For his part, the Deputy Minister said in his speech that the course the newscasters attended is a “clinical training that can contribute to RTB’s credibility and brighten its future”. He reminded RTB that it has to focus on long-term development and continue professionalising its ranks so they can effectively communicate information from the government.

Besides Watson, the other international media instructors present were Andrew Crisps of Reuters and Natalie Carnie of Russia TV.

The Brunei Times