The past ten years have seen a revolution in the ways in which people access, consume and share information. The Internet is now within the reach of more than 1 million in Puntland and an increasing number of them are now turning to social media platforms as a key source for the latest news and information, sharing and exchanging vital issues regarding the country’s political process, the social services and the demand of greater accountability and transparency from the government.

 In similar way, the establishment of social media based news outlets and platforms have significantly expanded the range of information available to people but majority of them have little care in engagement of people in discussions, exchange and direct interactions regarding the country’s political transformation. The social media based media have been  growing dramatically for the last ten years and its reach is more than the TVs and Radios now but have prompt challenges, mainly poor experience and knowledge.

In view of these challenges and consideration of the indispensable role of media in promotion of democracy, open government and federalism in Somalia, Bareedo Platform planned to provide trainings and other support for the social media based media outlets to improve their capacity in support of democracy, open government and federalism. This work has included initiatives aimed at strengthening professionalism in the media sector, supporting the media’s ability to foster accountability and an informed citizens through investigative, structured and smart reporting.

In pursuit of these, Bareedo concluded training of 38 journalists from social media based media outlets  in Bosaso and Garowe and in addition to that, 99% of Somali media report in Somali but tapping several languages or considering English or Arabic as a second language in Somalia is something missing, therefore Bareedo committed to train 20 journalists on reporting news and other matters in English to reach nearly 3 million Somali Diaspora in the West who 28% of them are unable to understand their language well.