Gambia: WoJAG Commits to Support Female Journalists, Improve Gender Equality

6 July 2023
The Point (Banjul)
By Battor Ceesay

The president of Women Journalist Association of The Gambia has spoken highly of the association policies and programmes, saying the association seeks to support women journalists and contribute to the socio-economic development.

Annette Anta Camara, who was speaking in a recent exclusive with The Point, noted that WOJAG is a non-governmental and non-profitable organisation that works on building the capacity of female journalists in The Gambia.

Registered at the Attorney General's Chambers at the Ministry of Justice on 6 June 2016, WOJAG aims to act as an advocate of freedom of speech, create democratic atmosphere and to improve gender equality.

"The purpose of forming this association is to support women journalists, thereby contributing and increasing the role of WoJAG in socio-economic activities through working with media and promoting the rights and welfare of women in the media."

Annette noted that the organisation also supports freedom of expression initiatives within the concept of the rule of law and works to strengthen the importance of media awareness.

"We also strengthen the professional skills of women journalists so as to increase the values of democracy. Increase the professional competencies of women journalists' association of The Gambia and make sure that women are catered for in terms of their welfare needs."

Ms Camara, thus reminded that WoJAG also seeks to bring journalists together to help them whenever there is an opportunity and to share or provide recommendations for them based on their knowledge, experiences and capacities.

"The association also offers members the chance to be part of our professional and social network."

Despite the challenges some journalists faced in the line of their duty, Ms Camara noted that the only assault case she heard of involving a member of her association was during the 2023 political campaign of Bakary Badjie in Bakau.

"One of our female journalists was attacked and suffered some difficulty when tear gas was fired during the said campaign coverage in Bakau."

Plans

With plans to grow bigger and better, WOJAG has also set out clear pathways and is working towards achieving it.

"One of our plans is to represent women to the best of their ability by ensuring that women do not face sexual harassment. We also seek to ensure that women are duly employed, given the standard they deserve and we are working towards having women in the media and make women reflect in media news content and also part of the priority list in terms of empowerment engagement in media houses." she stated.

Read the original article on The Point.

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