The Economic, Social and Cultural Council
(ECOSOCC) of the African Union has assured African media of its support
towards enhancing their capacity in covering the COVID-19 pandemic and other
health crises.
ECOSOCC Head of Secretariat, William
Carew said this yesterday during the ECOSOCC
Global Dialogue Series Webinar themed: Covering the Pandemic – African
Journalism in the Era of COVID-19, organized in collaboration with the
International Press Institute (IPI) and attracted editors, journalists and
media houses from across Africa.
The webinar created
awareness about the challenges that African media organizations and journalists
are facing in covering the COVID-19 pandemic on the continent and created a
platform to mobilize support for knowledge exchange between journalists from
across the globe to build the capacity of African journalists to report about
the pandemic that has crippled the economies of many countries and overwhelmed
health systems.
“This dialogue today
is just the beginning of the launch of a capacity-building program in
partnership with the International Press
Institute,” said Mr. Carew. “ECOSOCC has been a major player in leading the
sensitization and awareness raising campaigns working with other like-minded
institutions in partnership with the AU CDC in sharing credible and
authoritative information to African citizens. We want to work with you as part
of our mandate in achieving this, particularly as Article 4 of the ECOSOCC statute makes provision for
Media Organizations to be a member of the Organ.”
Opening the webinar, Dr.Lul Riek, AU’s Africa Centres for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Regional Coordinator for Southern Africa,
Regional Coordinating Centre (SA-RCC) said the webinar series was pertinent
because the accuracy and effectiveness of messages journalists provide could
make informed decisions between life and death of the people who have access to
it.
“Information from both
reliable and questionable sources do not present different spreading patterns,
thus negative information strongly influences people’s behavior, and may spread
faster and wider than fact-based news,” he said. “The Africa CDC is committed
to disseminating verified and valuable COVID-19 information, and sharing
knowledge with African Countries.”
Dr. Riek also gave the latest update on COVID-19 in Africa, stating that
currently, over 6 million Africans have been infected, of which an estimated
154, 000 have died while 19 AU Member States are experiencing aggressive 3rd
waves and one Member State is already experiencing the 4th wave of the
pandemic. Further, only 1.5% of the eligible population in Africa are fully
vaccinated which is far below the 60% target.
Mrs. Wynne Musabayana, Head of Communication at the African Union Commission, and
lead of the Union’s communication on the COVID-19 pandemic gave a presentation
on the role of the media in fighting the pandemic and the various ways in which
they can get accurate information from sources including the AUC and Africa
CDC.
The webinar was
moderated by John Yearwood, Global
News Editor, Politico (USA) and IPI Executive Board Member and panelists
included seasoned media personnel from across the continent including; Mr. Dapo Olorunyomi, Publisher, Premium
Times, Nigeria; Ms. Faseka Tadesse,
Bloomberg, former editor-in-chief, Addis Fortune; Mr. Erik Charas, Founder of @Verdade, Mozambique; Ms. Diane Uwimana, former Head of the
English Desk, Iwacu, Burundi and Ms.
Khadija Patel, IPI Executive Board Vice Chair and former Editor-in-Chief of
Mail and Guardian, South Africa.
The panelists shared
country experiences in covering and reporting the COVID-19 pandemic including
challenges they face. ECOSOCC will, going forward in collaboration with IPI
embark on capacity building training sessions for African media on covering and
reporting health crises.
About ECOSOCC
The Economic, Social
and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) was established in July 2004 as an Advisory
Organ composed of different social and professional groups of AU Member States.
The mandate of ECOSOCC is to contribute, through advice, to the effective
translation of the objectives, principles and policies of the African Union
into concrete programmes, as well as the evaluation of these programmes.
Source:
ECOSOCC Media Office
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