Walter Wilson Nana
11 April 2008
Buea — Ndi Chia made the challenge at the Annual General Meeting of the National Professional Media Women in Cameroon, NAPMEW, where he gave a talk on "Women in the Media and Challenges" at the Cameroon Cultural Centre, Buea, Friday, April 4.
The head of The Post editorial team invited Cameroonian media women to avoid being cosmetic, only using journalism as a vehicle to "showcase" themselves, especially on radio and television.
He said appearing on television was one thing and that delivering good, relevant reports and newscasts was quite another."The Cameroonian women in the media should distinguish themselves on the home front and then push to be actually seen and heard on world renowned media like the BBC and CNN, just like the venerated Christiane Ammanpour," Ndi Chia advised.
To him, hard work, humility, reading and yet more reading are the ingredients to make a spicy and successful journalism career, whether the practitioner is male or female.
He argued that a certificate in journalism was only as good as the cardboard piece of paper on which it is printed, adding that a journalist's real certificate is his or her output, based on thoroughly investigated and well written stories and meticulously researched, well produced magazine programmes and documentaries.
Southwest Provincial Delegate of Communication, Wilfred Nkong Makoge, saw women as playing a vital role in the media despite some of their natural setbacks. "The women folk, who have made this gathering possible, play a vital part in the overall evolution of our society besides their innate role as mothers and as the heart of the family," he said.
Makoge requested NAPMEW to build the capacity of their members, sensitise and mobilise decision makers and the society in general on a series of topical issues as imbedded in their objectives.
"I call on all female media practitioners in the Southwest Province and Cameroon in general to join the train of NAPMEW before it gets too late," he advised.He entreated NAPMEW members to take the advantages made available by the government of Cameroon and international funding institutions on the promotion of women in the media.
Reverend Achowah Umenei, Communication and Scholarship Secretary of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, PCC, made a plea to the Cameroonian media women to shine, no matter the odds on their way.
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