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African journalists to get office at U.S. varsity
HOWARD University, United States of America, has given the National Association of African Journalists (NAAJ) a free office to use as its national secretariat.
The gesture was approved recently by Dr. Jannette L. Dates, dean of Howard University's John H. Johnson School of Communications in Washington D.C. The deal also has the backing of Prof. Phillip Dixon, journalism department chair and Dr. Larry Kaggwa, Ugandan-born journalism professor and member of the African journalism organisation also known as NAAJ.
The new NAAJ secretariat will be located at the lower level of the school of communications near the District Chronicles, an independent community newspaper. It has a space for a conference room and a main office.
The secretariat will be rent-free, but the organisation will be responsible for expenditure on staff and furnish it.
Howard University will also allow NAAJ to use the Howard University Television (WHUT) studio for its press conferences with visiting African presidents, ambassadors to United States and other political and business leaders involved with the African continent.
"This will accomplish one of our goals, which is for NAAJ to serve as a forum for visiting African presidents and other prominent Africans to address African journalists on the situation in their various countries," said Eyobong Ita, NAAJ founder and interim president who works as a reporter for The Kansas City Star in Missouri.
"We will be working with African embassies to work us into itineraries of such people. Hopefully, no longer will they have to go to the National Press Club for their briefings," he said.
NAAJ was inaugurated on August 7 at Howard University. About 60 members that included active and former African journalists and publishers from Nigeria, Mali, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Cameroun and other countries, attended the inauguration.
The new association is aimed at promoting unity among African journalists and others involved with the African media, as well as overcoming prejudice against African journalists in American and other foreign media.
It hopes to assist its members with developing new skills at practising journalism in United States.
A Howard University alumnus, Ita said about 90 percent of African journalists who started their careers in Africa had not been able to practice in U.S., according to a survey before the inauguration. He noted that this was as a result of their African accent, adding that broadcast journalists were the worst affected.
"One of the reasons for forming NAAJ is to give such journalists a second chance at journalism," said Ita, who is also a member of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) and secretary of its Kansas City chapter.
On November 6, the group will hold a national workshop for its members in New York City.
NAAJ members also can belong to the NABJ, or vice versa.
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