CNN's Jim Clancy conducts training for NEWS5 team

MANILA, Philippines - CNN recently conducted a two-day in-country session, led by veteran correspondent and news anchor Jim Clancy and international newsource director Eli Flournoy, training the anchors, correspondents and producers of NEWS5, TV5’s news organization. The training maximizes NEWS5’s CNN broadcast partnership which it inked with the international news agency in September 2010.

The CNN-NEWS5 in-country training was focused on lectures and workshops with international scope and scale, while remaining relevant to the local broadcast landscape. According to DJ Sta. Ana, NEWS5 head of news operations, the training is beneficial “in the sense that it helps them (anchors, reporters and producers) improve their skill. It exposes them to the processes involved in international news organizations so they are able to pick up ideas, best practices and scenarios which they can apply and relate with their own work here.” 

“And it’s always beneficial to learn from people of experience like Jim Clancy,” he added.

Meanwhile, Ann Chu, executive director of CNN broadcast services and affiliate relations, is optimistic that the training will strengthen the partnership of the two news organizations. “I’m delighted that our newsrooms are able to work even more closely together. CNN has always acknowledged building local relations with journalists as crucial to our shared success.”

The attendees were inspired by the work ethic and extensive broadcast experience of the multi-awarded Clancy, whose experience across the world’s biggest stories, including in the Middle East and Africa, earned him recognitions from prestigious award-giving bodies including the Emmys, George Polk and Alfred I.DuPont.

For Erwin Tulfo, anchor of NEWS5’s flagship newscast AKSYON, the in-country training presented greater opportunities for seasoned broadcast journalists and new breeds alike. “I’ve been in this business for quite some time but I still learn a lot of things like new ways, new techniques in covering stories and events. He (CNN’s Jim Clancy) knows a lot of things — from anchoring to covering. He has been at CNN for more than three decades. I learned a lot of things from him. He was very inspirational,” Erwin disclosed, adding that he’s looking forward to improving his “covering, anchoring skills” and probably shares it with NEWS5’s junior reporters and new anchors.

Maeanne Los Baños, NEWS5’s junior correspondent, related that each lecture from the training was very insightful, especially for them who work in the field. “I think the timing is really perfect for us working as correspondents. Specifically, I value the lectures on reporting in a hostile environment and lecture on balanced reporting and ethics,” she said.

“I really value his (Clancy’s) stories about how he actually prepares each day on his work. He still devotes more than two hours for reading newspapers before he goes to work. That’s something that reminds us of how big our responsibility is as journalist. That we’re not just there to cover, we have to sit there each day so that we’ll be able to give the information as complete as we can to the viewers,” she said.