PHOTO: Participants during the opening ceremony
By Garmah Never Lomo, garmahlomo@gmail.com
Monrovia, Liberia- The Volunteers for Sustainable Development in Africa (VOSIEDA) is today, Friday, November 19, 2021 ending a two-day workshop to strengthen the Liberia media and highlight safety and security.
The training workshop, which is being held in collaboration with the Department of Communications and Media Studies at the University of Liberia (UL), covers legal know how, personal safety, and security in reporting from conflicts and dangerous zones workshop for eighty journalists in Monrovia.
Eighty Journalists are drawn from Margibi and Montserrado Counties and they began the training on Thursday under the theme: Strengthening the Independent Media.
The training is being held at the UL’s Fendell campus outside of Monrovia.
At the opening ceremony, VOSIEDA’s project manager, Sadatu Fahnbulleh said the workshop is about Journalists safety, skills and access to information.
Mrs. Fahnbulleh added that the project is two years project being implemented by VOSIEDA, Department of Communication at the University of Liberia and the Press Union of Liberia.
Both journalists from Margibi and Montserrado Counties are in category one and journalists from Bong, Nimba and Lofa Counties are in category two.
Also speaking, Timothy Kortu, team manager of VOSIEDA disclosed the project is based on the ability for to freely report and interact with citizens.
According to him, a society where citizens are not informed is doom to break down.
Mr. Kortu narrated that the training is necessary to build the capacity of journalists to have a free space of reporting in a safe environment without being harm.
The workshop is also aimed at putting in place policies and laws to freely report and they are currently working on how to establish a legal department at the Press Union of Liberia to handle cases against journalists while discharging their duties.
Those policies or laws that expected to be enacted will serve as guide for journalists to defend themselves adding that Article 15 of the Liberian constitution guarantees free press, speech and expression.
He revealed that the media community has integrity problems but they are workings on things to correct some of those integrity issues.
For his part, the Vice President of the Press Union of Liberia, Daniel Nyankona has said the PUL handles attack against journalists by collecting, analyzing to ensure that they get justice.
He said the workshop will help to build network and spoke of the need for more women Journalists to play editorial role in the newsroom.
The PUL Vice President urged Liberian Journalists to take the workshop seriously, as it is intended to build the capacity of Journalists.
Welcoming VOCEIDA’s officials and the Journalist to the UL campus, the Dean of Liberia College, Dr. Josephus Moses Gray said the state-owned University was making strides to develop the human resources of the country.
Dr. Gray spoke of the importance the UL administration attaches to the development of the Department of Communications and Media Studies, and announced plans by the UL to introduce a Master’s degree program in this field in the not too distant future.
Meanwhile, the President of the Female Journalists Association (FeJAL) has urged Journalists to always take safety precaution, because their safety comes first.