Comm. & Media Studies Chair Togar Urges Journalists To Lead And Think Strategically, While Sawyer College Dean Underscores Seminar’s Significance
By Sydney Nicol
Several print and broadcast media managers and publishers have participated in a day-long Strategic Media Management Seminar organized by the University of Liberia (UL) Department.
Held under the theme,”Where Strategy Shapes Media Leadership”, the seminar was sponsored by the Liberia Telecommunications and took place at the UL Capitol Hill campus on Friday, January 30, 2026,
The Chairman of the Department of Communication and Media Studies under the Amos C. Sawyer College of Social Sciences and Humanities, Euriahs M. Togar said that the seminar was organized “at a time when media organizations are under pressure from three directions at once: political influence, economic survival, and digital disruption”.
Chairman Togar
In an opening statement he said, “political influence in Liberia is not abstract.”
”It is experienced daily through selective access to public information, pressure from powerful office holders, threats of lawsuits, and the strategic use of government advertising as leverage,” the Chairman of the UL Communication Department asserted.
Mr. Togar added that in such a climate, “editorial independence is constantly tested and journalists are often forced to choose between professional integrity.”
“Most of us were trained to think of media as content. But in reality, media is power, economic power, political power, cultural power, and agenda-setting power. Yet despite this reality, across Africa and particularly in Liberia, many media houses are still managed as if they were small projects, not strategic national institutions,” he intoned.
He concluded by encouraging the participants to engage boldly, to unlearn in order to lead, and to think strategically, because the future of Liberian journalism will be decided by them and not reporters only.
Several media professionals made presentations at the seminar to include Jefferson Massah, Media Development Specialist and former Deputy Chief of Party of Internews; George S. Stewart, Project Officer, Joe Mulbah Center for Journalism and Public Relations; and Frank Sainworla, Jr., Acting Coordinator of JMC, who is also Managing Editor of News Public Trust, www.newspublictrust.com.
They made separate presentation on the following topics: Pillars of Strategic Media Management, Raising Money Through Innovation; Resource Mobilization for Sustainable Media Management and Media Business Vs Ethics.
Making brief remarks during the just-ended seminar, the Dean of the Sawyer College, formerly Liberia College, Prof. Dr. Moses Gray underscored the significance of a strategic media management seminar, which would help improve the country’s media sector.
The President of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL), Julius Kanubah was at the opening ceremony of the seminar along with heads of media development institutions including the Country Representative of Internews-EU, Samuka Konneh, Malcolm W. Joseph, Executive Director of the Center for Media Studies and Peace Building (CEMESP).