FAJ Steering Committee Meets in Nairobi

The Steering Committee of the Federation of African Journalists (FAJ) held its first meeting this year in Nairobi on Friday 11 July, 2014.  The meeting brought together all  elected members of the Steering Committee to deliberate on issues concerning the campaigns and advocacy work of FAJ, the FAJ Mission to Central Africa Republic, fundraising, developments in the IFJ,  relationship with the African Union and with regional associations.<u1:p></u1:p>

 

In his statement to members of the Steering Committee, FAJ President, Mohamed Garba, said that within the past year, FAJ had occupied itself with the safety and protection of journalists across the continent.  “Impunity against journalists and the media in general continued unabated, as hardly a week passes without any mention of either physical attack on journalists or media houses”. <u1:p></u1:p>

 

The FAJ President condemned in the strongest terms possible, the killing of radio journalist, Yusuf Ahmed, in Somalia and the killing of Nigeria journalist, Suleiman Bisallah; the unwarranted seizure of newspapers by the military in Nigeria; the burgling and storming of the houses of two journalists in Zimbabwe; and the seven year jail term slammed on the Al Jazeera journalists by the Egyptian court.<u1:p></u1:p>

 

Concerning the membership of FAJ, the President echoed his sentiments buttressed by other members of the Steering Committee who reiterated that the onstitution should be reviewed and their commitment to continue to engage the unions in transition, namely the Union of Journalists of South Sudan (UJOSS).<u1:p></u1:p>

FAJ President, Mohamed Garba, called on the members of the Steering Committee and the journalists trade unions in general to show more commitment in the payment of their dues, both at the continental level and to the IFJ. The payment of dues should be seen as commitment and obligation by all members and defaults are totally unacceptable.<u1:p></u1:p>

 

In devising strategies to work more closely with the regional associations, the Steering Committee called on the leaders of the regional associations to ensure that they inform and include the FAJ leadership in all their programmes. Five new committees were established by the Steering Committee in order to enhance the work of FAJ in the continent and beyond. These committees include Communications, Gender, Projects, Finance and Climate Change.<u1:p></u1:p>

 

For more information, please contact FAJ Secretariat: +221 33 867 95 86/87<u1:p></u1:p>FAJ represents more than 50,000 journalists in 40 countries in Africa<u1:p></u1:p>