The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has challenged West African media not to fail its citizens who are looking up to them to expose corruption and other injustices.
The Foundation said it will be heart breaking if West African media fails its citizens in a similar faction as the sub-region’s politicians.
“Unlike the politicians, the media must not fail the people of West Africa. The media can and must contribute to the region’s peace, stability and development,” it said.
[contextly_sidebar id=”Qc4iWfnBEwIGU976dsxOOjFsuaKsREDq”]The Foundation’s New Year’s message signed by its Executive Director, Sulemana Braimah said the media must “truly become the watchdog of our societies” by exposing corruption and following up until perpetrators are punished.
He also charged the media to “promote and defend citizens’ rights to freely express themselves and participate in governance processes. The media must hold governments and politicians accountable for their promises and fight against destruction of our environment.”
Mr. Braimah observed that the West African sub-region faced many challenges in 2014 with the biggest being the Ebola outbreak, the attacks on civilian populations by fundamentalist groups like Boko Haram.
According to him, the new challenges that emerged in 2014 and those that predate 2014 “need to be tackled.”
“At the same time, however, some of the challenges need to be understood as being the effects of very fundamental problems, which will continue to wreak havoc unless they are dealt with.
“So it’s about dealing with the root causes of our problems – corruption by leaders, suppression of the fundamental rights of the masses and oppression of the poor and marginalized. Continuing to focus on the effects of the fundamental problems without dealing with the problems themselves cannot be a solution,” the statement said.
The MFWA pointed out that in 2015, the media in West Africa must stand up to their developmental role and contribute significantly to help deal with the root causes of the many problems in the region including “corruption, human rights violations, poverty, weak institutions, poor infrastructure and the many others.”
The statement added that despite the well-known challenges with media sustainability and survival in the sub-region, “professionalism should override commercial and partisan considerations. Serving the public’s interest should be the ultimate goal.”
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @osamidan