By Fatou Saho
The Media Academy for Journalism and Communication (MAJaC), in its quest to promoting ethical and responsible journalism, has collaborated with Freedom house and launched a project- ’empowering ethical journalism excellence, elevating reporting capacities and strengthening Media integrity’ in the Gambia.
This initiative was launched at the premises of the national nutrition agency on Tuesday under the theme “responsible Journalism”, with 20 participants to be trained for a period of six weeks.
Elaborating on why ethical journalism matters in a society and in nation at large, James Badjie, the Director of training at MAJaC, said: “Ethical journalism serves as the bedrock of democracy. It upholds accountability, transparency, fosters inform public discuss and safeguards against misinformation and censorship which are all essential pillars upon which a free and inform society stands.
Demba Kandeh, the deputy chief of party at Freedom House, expressed delight in collaborating with MAJaC and deliver such training for the 3rd time.
“I want to highlight that in the world of proliferation of media and in the case of the Gambia, its very common to see a lot of journalistic mistakes. It is natural as human beings as journalists, it is natural to make mistakes but we have a responsibility when we make mistakes, we find ways of correcting those mistakes and avoid making mistakes as much as possible. Freedom house is very please to extend its support to the Gambian media in terms of upholding the principles of democracy, freedom of expression and access to media,” Kandeh emphasised.
Representing the secretary general of the Gambia Press Union (GPU) , Musa Sarjo, mentioned, “as part of GPU’s mandate to promote freedom of expression and responsible journalism, the union reminds all journalists to comply with ethical principles and guidelines of the Cherno Jallow Charter of ethics for journalists”.
