BY IBRAHIM JOENAL SESAY (232news.com)
Campaign for Good Governance (CGG) with support from Trocaire and Irish Aid engaged journalists on how to promote female candidates to win electorates’ votes through media reporting.
The training which is title National Advocacy for Women’s Empowerment (NAWE) took place on Thursday 8th June, 2023 at Vanilla Complex, Aberdeen.
In her welcome remarks, Mrs Bernadette French expressed joy to see female journalists as part of the fourth estate.
She also expressed appreciation on the improvement of journalists and how they are dealing with issues of the state during their reporting and engagement.
She emphasised that there is power in communication, and they can’t under estimate the role of the media, more so when Sierra Leone is going into elections, citing the level of misinformation and the influence of social media.
“If anything blows up during and after the elections, women will suffer the more. Lots of women contestants and non-contestants standing are going through lots of violence on and offline.”
She asked how can the media spotlight violence and report on it accurately.
“I hope this training will help you to build the skills and report accurately to the public and how do you profile candidates,” she ended.
Sierra Leone Association Women In Journalism (SLAWIJ) representative, Aminate F. Massaquoi said they have fought one fight which is to ensure they give women the power through the Gender Bill.
She went on to say they wants to make sure that they influence the women with such power by ensuring that women have the courage to believe in themselves.
“We want to take the space because 30% has been given to us,” she said.
According to the President of Women in the Media Sierra Leone (WIMSAL) Eastina Taylor she said there are lots of challenges women are facing when it comes to elections.
She went on to say female journalists play a pivotal role in promoting balance and inclusive reporting when it comes to elections.
“It is our duty to make sure that female contestants are known. Your role is to ensure that female candidates are known and for them to feel comfortable whenever they are call for interviews,” she said.
Trocaire Manager, Maurice Pewa said journalists have a key role to play in society. He pointed out that the space for women to participate has become limited because of harassment and intimidation in all aspects.
The media have a very vital role to ensure that the Gender Bill and the promotion of women at all level not only during elections be seen.
He emphasised that some of the negative social norms is affecting women in society.
The President of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) Ahmed Sahid Nasralla pointed out that progress have been made for the promotion of women in Sierra Leone and the media have played a critical role towards that.
He encouraged the media to take the training seriously and wish them well in their endeavours.
The training focused on how to identify incidences against gender base violence (GBV), how to do balance reporting when it comes to gender reporting and how to profile female candidates.
