From Bright Blewu, GJA Delegate and Special Correspondent
The first working congress of the Federation of African Journalists (FAJ) ended in the Kenyan capital Nairobi with the adoption of a Constitution for the continental journalists' body and the endorsement of an action plan to be implemented by a Steering Committee.
FAJ which comprises 35 African affiliates of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the world's largest journalists association, representing over 500,000 journalists in 162 unions/associations in 116 countries held its two-day congress under the theme:"Standing Up for Africa: Union Solidarity and Quality Journalism Working for Democracy".
The Pan-African journalists organisation drew up an action plan for the next two years, 2008 - 2010, to be implemented by an elected seven-member Steering Committee from the Gambia, Tunisia, Somalia, Zimbabawe, Uganda Niger and Cameroon.
The action plan includes a campaign to free African journalists in jail, promote safety of journalists, trade union development, media law reforms and efficient and effective use of communication technologiy to strenghten solidarity and share information with member unions.
The two-day congress which was opened Friday by Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Amolo Odinga and addressed by IFJ President Jim Bouhale among others, charged the Steering Committee to among other things set out the framework for the "African Journalists out of Jail" campaign begun by the IFJ.
The campaign is to be carried out in consultation with the Darkar-based IFJ Africa Office and IFJ Executive Committee within a framework that considers its financing, submit when necessary, complaints to the UN Human Rights Committee and the Africa Commission on Human and People's Rights, and build when the need arises, coalitions with other international workers' organisations such as teachers.
The campaign's immediate aim, however, is to focus on the release of journalists currently imprisoned in Eritrea and Ethiopia.
On the safety of journalists, FAJ through its Steering Committee is to through a more concerted effort engage the Africa Union on the issue of safety and impunity and to also push much harder on the agenda of the IFJ main campaign on impunity, the unsolved murders of African journalists, such Deyda Hydara of the Gambia.
The action plan tasks the Steering Committee to ensure that African affiliates of the IFJ focus on building and organising themselves into independent and effective unions that promote collective bargaining agreements, other pay and working conditions issues, defend press freedom and engage in the general welfare of journalists in their individual countries.
A key part of the action plan charges the Steering Committee to mount greater pressure on government's for the necessary law reforms that create media friendly environments. In that regard, an African Treaty for the protection of media freedom and freedom of expression is to be vigorously pursued by FAJ.
The Steering Committee is also charged with promoting networking among FAJ members through the use of communication technologies such as websites to improve day-to-day information sharing, show of solidarity and bilateral exchanges among others things.
Forty-one delegates from 35 African countries including Ghana whose unions/associations are affiliates of the IFJ, attended the historic first working congress of the FAJ whose roots are traced to a conference in Rabat, Morocco in September 2006 culminating in the launch of the organisation in the Nigerian capital Abuja, in November 2007.
