The Inquirer (Monrovia)
14 April 2008
Monrovia — West African Journalists have ended a two-day workshop in the Guinean capital, Conakry on the adoption of a Collective Bargaining Agreement for all journalists in the sub-region.
Under the auspices of WAJA, with support from ECOWAS and International organizations, the standard framework seeks to put in place a minimal working condition for the practice of the profession.
WAJA is urging that journalists be given minimal salaries equivalent at least to the amount paid public servants for jobs of a similar level based on the economy of each country. Only Senegal and the Ivory Coast have so far signed the agreement.
PUL Secretary-General, Peter Quaqua who attended the workshop says the tripartite collective agreement between the state, employers and media professionals, will serve as a catalyst in improving the conditions of journalists and enhance their professional output.
Mr. Quaqua says for too long, some media managers in Liberia have treated their employees with content when it comes to pay. But said the framework is an opportunity to check the arbitrary actions of employers who layoff journalists without benefits, and in some cases, pay appalling salaries for their labor.
Participants from fifteen of the sixteen West African Countries also discussed the need to regulate entry into the profession by agreeing on a minimal qualification to practice as a journalist.
At the end of the workshop, two separate resolutions were issued calling on the government of Niger to release from detention, journalists Moussa Kaka who has been in jail for seven months. Moussa is the Correspondent for Radio France International in Niger. The other resolution condemned the disappearance of journalist Chief Ebrima Manneh. Manneh was apparently picked up for passing on information to a foreign journalist. The Gambia authorities have denied holding the journalists and refused to respond to the court summons on the matter.
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