The Union of Journalists of South Sudan (UJOSS) on Wednesday completed a two-day training workshop in investigative journalism for its first cohort of 30 scribes in Juba.

According to a UJOSS official, they conducted capacity building in investigative journalism to improve in-depth reporting in a bid to strengthen journalistic skills.

Speaking during the closing of the workshop on Wednesday, UJOS Secretary General Majak Daniel Kuany said the training will enhance the journalists’ knowledge of how to investigate issues.

“We organized this investigative journalism training for the first cohort of about 30 journalists from various print and broadcast media houses,” he said. “The purpose is to enhance the capacity of journalists in investigative journalism.”

According to Majak, UJOSS will train two more groups of journalists this year and one next year.

He said the training will provide journalists with relevant knowledge and understanding of how to conduct investigative pertinent issues and report and publish them within the parameters of media laws.

Majur Chol Kur, a journalist working for the South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation (SSBC), said the workshop gave them tips on how to investigate stories.

“Attending this workshop on investigative journalism was very important in a way that it empowered and gave us ideas on how to investigate stories,” he stated.

Another participant, Susan Tandeko, a freelance journalist, said pieces of training in investigative journalism are rear in South Sudan and that she benefited a lot from the workshop.

“As a journalist, the training made me understand what investigative journalism is. Sometimes we cover stories that we claim are investigative but in actual sense they are not,” she said. “We have learned today what investigative journalism is and the principles of investigative journalism.”

Meanwhile, Imoya Daniela, a freelance journalist and former station at JBS television in Juba, said the workshop gave her an in-depth understanding of investigative journalism.