Mountain Hotel-Buea, May 8, 2024
Faced with the observed inadequate reporting of the on-going socio-political crisis (the Anglophone Armed Struggle);
Faced with the sad reality of journalists/media professionals operating in dispersed ranks in a plethora of associations and the obvious consequence on press solidarity, quality of media performance and the public image of journalists/media professionals;
Bearing in mind the increase in unethical practices by journalists/media practitioners seen in the content of media products;
Faced with the potential challenges of future elections, especially those expected in 2025 (a swell election year) and past experiences of inadequate flow of truthful information about the entire electoral process;
Bearing in mind the vital role of the Press in a democracy and in governance;
Faced with the increasing flow of non-journalistic content on social media;
Considering the determination of the Press to uphold and defend its role as the Fourth Estate of the Realm,
Members of the Press corps meeting in Buea on 8th May 2024 for the second Media Conference organised by Civil Initiatives for Development with Integrity (CiDi) headed by veteran journalist, Victor Epie-Ngome, took the following resolutions:
1.) The press corps hereby mandates a panel of journalists-emeritus to pull together leaders of different press associations and organisations to seek ways of federating their actions towards upholding standards in media practice, tending to the welfare of news media practitioners and addressing burning issues;
2.) That group of professional elders, to be called Journalists-emeritus Panel (JeP) shall comprise the following: Victor Epie-Ngome, Martin Nkemngu, Charlie Ndi Chia, Wain Paul Ngam, Tricia Oben and Gemnda Buinda.
3.) The Journalists-emeritus Panel shall be assisted by a Technical Committee;
4.) The Technical Committee shall comprise the following: Scholar Maloke, Bouddih Adams, Franklin Sone Bayen, Wasso Norbert, Dr Lizzy Nengieh, Dr Olive Ejang, Dr Eileen Manka’a Tabuwe, Randy Joe Sa’ah and Kini Nsom;
5.) The Journalists-emeritus Panel shall, within a month from the end of this conference, invite leaders of various press associations and organisations to brief them on the motive of the vision;
6.) The invitation and encounter shall be facilitated by Victor Epie-Ngome;
7.) A working group shall be created, including leaders of the different press associations/organisations or their duly mandated representatives to discuss ways of empowering media practitioners socio-economically and to produce a common code of ethics for the practice of journalism;
8.) CiDi and other capable entities shall source for the material means to enable the smooth functioning of the work of the Journalists-emeritus Panel and related operations;
9.) An election coverage taskforce of volunteer news media practitioners is hereby created to ensure proper coverage of the multiple elections expected in 2025;
10.) Charlie Ndi Chia is mandated to, within one month from the end of this conference, convene a meeting of the taskforce;
11.) The election coverage taskforce shall be given specifically targeted, rigorous training to ensure proper and thorough coverage of the coming elections;
12.) The election taskforce shall orient journalists/media practitioners to, beyond just election coverage, further do election promise tracking by documenting promises made by candidates and tracking their implementation to point out unkept promises;
13.) The election coverage taskforce shall be provided with Hi-Tech coverage equipment to facilitate their work;
14.) Operations of the election coverage taskforce shall be financed to protect members from being vulnerable and malleable at the hands of unscrupulous politicians and other interest groups;
15.) The election coverage taskforce shall run a centralized news pool to furnish professionally sourced, treated and packaged news for use by news media;
16.) The election coverage taskforce shall also generate content in national languages for messages to reach out to the wider public;
17.) Beyond the election coverage taskforce, the press corps hereby creates a news agency to ensure the circulation of professionally sourced, treated and packaged news content to be put at the disposal of news organisations;
18.) The press corps shall increasingly use and further train fact-checkers to minimize circulation of unverified information;
19.) The press corps shall provide rigorous training for a pool of news editors to cover, treat and package news on the Anglophone Crisis;
20.) The press corps and organisers of various forms of training shall, henceforth, ensure that news media practitioners invited for training are those covering the beat, to ensure relevance of training and maximize chances of knowledge and skills acquired being applied on the job;
21.) The press corps and organisers of different forms of training shall engage to monitor and evaluate the performance of participants and invite to future training programmes only those demonstrating added value from previous training;
22.) The press corps shall vigorously advocate and follow up reforms towards an information policy, including a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to legally oblige public authorities to provide sought-after information to the Press.
These resolutions are adopted and supported by all participants at this second Media Conference organized by CiDi. (List herein attached.)
Done in Buea this 8th day of May 2024.
Signed
– Conference Chair (Wain Paul Ngam)
– Conference Rapporteur (Gemnda Buinda)
– Conference Organiser (CiDi CEO)