Will The Kanubah Team Meet The Challenge?
PHOTO: The Author
By George Sarwah Stewart
Holding all factors constant, the Press Union of Liberia (PUL) has elected a new corps of officers that should place priority on resifting, right-shifting, and restoring the sanity and dignity of not just the PUL but Journalism itself.
President-elect Julius Kanubah and corps of officers must face the present PUL not with muscles but smart heads. Journalism itself needs an overhaul to sustain purpose and relevance to Liberia’s democracy; added to the bruises left behind by the electoral fracas. Hopefully, the Kanubah leadership could lead a robust reform agenda, but nothing is certain without a leadership agenda for tracking and accountability. Ahead of the official induction, I thought to suggest a few talking points below:
Proceed Strategically: In Shakespeare’s Play, King Henry IV said “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.” Contrary to King Henry IV’s leadership exhaustion at the time of expression, Kanubah and his team are coming fresh to leadership but this leadership reality persists.
It is prudent to document the state of affairs of the PUL and the media climate– the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT). Already there are development reports and findings from media development initiatives carried out by the donor community that could enhance the knowledge base of the new leaders. A comprehensive assessment by the new leadership could enable setting smart goals for media reform, and cleanup.
Protect Good Journalism: partisan journalism is overwhelming the landscape. Politicians and propagandists are not just media owners anymore but direct content producers, feeding the public with half-truths or falsehoods for political gains. Good Journalism is more than negative reporting; that’s why there’s Solutions Journalism. Good Journalism is investigative and is an embodiment of facts beyond reasonable doubt, not screenshots to constitute evidence. Good Journalism is not judgmental but a repository of the truths that help the public to be the judge.
Restore the Dignity of the Media: Journalism, a public service career, needs to regain and sustain its integrity. Many practitioners have gone astray, mixed up as partisans and journalists. The two cannot work at the same time. In this rebrand, let the varying membership categories of the PUL work. Understandably, some members of the PUL transitioned to full-time political discipline since. Many have over time manipulated and sustained their full membership with the PUL. The Peter Quaqua Interim Committee radically dealt with such menace by freezing the voting rights of such individuals. The new leadership needs to uphold such hard standards. The time is now to change the narrative in favor of good journalism. If it requires investigating the root causes of the decline in integrity, the leadership should employ the right measures as needed.
Corruption in the media is so embarrassing not only to the media’s members of honor but to the practitioners of integrity and decency. How did we get to the point of media leaders siphoning public funds for the union’s headquarters project? Why should media personnel be used as stooges to undermine their own PUL as alleged relative to the disputed Gbarnga elections? This new leadership has the opportunity to restore the dignity of not just the PUL but the landscape entirely!
Strengthen Media Business Capacity: A Media outlet as a business should be given the necessary capacity strengthening to acquire resources for sustainable operations. Liberia needs media managers who are not just only journalists but professional and contemporary managers.
The changing global reality in traditional media marketing must be addressed by Liberia. A lot has changed so should we. Advertisements as media lifeblood have upgraded in the presence of New and Social Media. Media revenue diversification, innovation, and strategic management are among the knowledge essentials for media management.
Stimulate Membership Loyalty: As a membership organization, the PUL needs to attract the loyalty of its members by instituting membership benefits. May this new leadership employ fellowship and specialized reporting grant initiatives, networking for cross-border sisterly relations among member institutions and like-minded institutions in Africa and elsewhere, and long and mid-range capacity building as an update capacity endeavor. Membership organizations should always motivate the loyalty of their members.
Congratulations to President-elect Julius Kanubah and the Corps of Officers!