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Momodou
Denmark
11828 Posts |
 Posted - 20 Feb 2008 : 19:39:16
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African Commission Pledges Collaboration with Journalists
By Bubacarr K. Sowe
The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) has promised to work with African journalists in the reporting of human rights issues around the continent. Addressing journalists from fourteen West African States, at a human rights workshop for journalists last week, at the Paradise Suites Hotel, Justice Sanji Monageng, Chairperson of the ACHPR said, “We want to strengthen our partnerships with journalists groups to foster a culture of empowerment of human rights defenders and civil society activities”.
The ACHPR Chairperson also said this collaboration enables the African Commission and its partners to develop more effective and more integrated programmes of assistance to encourage media excellence in reporting on human rights issues.
She said: “But we also want to enable journalists and media houses to set up networks for the exchange of information and consultation on issues of common interests. We will therefore be working with journalists from across the region to expand and improve human rights coverage”.
Justice Monageng said they will do this by encouraging and training carefully selected media practitioners, providing the skill-base and incentives necessary to make human rights reporting a priority across entire media community.
According to her, this will allow local media to reach millions of people in their own language who would otherwise have little access to information about their rights. Commissioner Monageng added that Article 9 of the African Charter is dedicated to increasing the quality and quantity of human rights reporting in the African media.
“The media, as you know, has enormous responsibilities in today’s human rights landscape. Strengthening democracy and basic human freedom, including freedom of expression, depends largely on the reporter’s capacity to provide reliable information through responsible and professional reporting,” said Justice Monageng.
Dr. Mary Maboreke, the Secretary to the African Commission told the journalists that they should help them by pointing out the things they are not doing rightly.
Dr. Maboreke added that the reason why the commission is not popular among the African citizenry is not that it is not doing its job but because it is not widely covered in the African Media. As the commission prepares for its Silver Jubilee in 2012, Dr. Maboreke appealed to journalists to extensively cover their activities.
For the journalists who participated in the training, a network of human rights journalists for West African was set up. Among the things they put in place is a working group that will report back to the network within a month.
Source: Foroyaa Newspaper Burning Issues
Issue No. 21/2008, 20 – 21 February 2008
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A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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