PAP President Charumbira describes the media as an integral part of the rebranding process - AFRICAN PARLIAMENTARY NEWS

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Monday, August 29, 2022

PAP President Charumbira describes the media as an integral part of the rebranding process

The President of the Pan-African Parliament, H. E. Hon. Chief Fortune Charumbira has said that the Media Capacity Building Workshop organized by the Parliament is a deliberate attempt to ensure that the media is an integral part of the process of reviving, renewing, repositioning and reinvigorating the Pan-African Parliament.

H. E. Hon. Charumbira stated this in his keynote address to the Media Workshop organized by the PAP over the weekend at the seat of the Parliament in Midrand, South Africa.

The workshop participants included members of the Steering Committee of the African Parliamentary Press Network (APPN).

“The Bureau of the Pan African Parliament is acutely aware that we cannot achieve our new strategic thrust of reviving and repositioning the Pan African Parliament within the continental governance matrix without rebranding the institution. Rebranding, as you are well aware of, is the process of changing the corporate image of an institution to create a different identity. Our desire to rebrand the Pan African Parliament, to create a different identity, is both a proactive and reactive initiative” he said.

He informed the workshop participants that the Strategic Reorientation Workshop recently organized for the members of the parliament gave  time to “brutally self-introspect, earnestly assess where we have come from, where we are, where we want to go and how we can get there. One of the means of getting where we want to go is, of course, proactively rebranding the institution”.

Charumbira regretted that public perception of the Pan African Parliament and, indeed, the African Union as a whole, is very unflattering, especially so after the aborted PAP elective session in May 2021.

“As an institution and as a Bureau, we have thus made a deliberate decision to rebrand, to change our corporate identity, and we cannot do that without the help of yourselves, the media”.

“We invite you to come with us as we begin this difficult journey of rebranding the Pan African Parliament. We invite you to report on the positive thrust that we have started on by ensuring equity and justice throughout all the structures of the Pan African Parliament, by adhering to the principle of geographical rotation. Never in the Pan African Parliament’s history, has each Region held the Chairpersonship, Deputy Chair and Rapporteur of at least two Committees as the Bureau of the 6th Parliament has done”.

“We invite you to buttress the call for unity and togetherness that is an abiding value of the founding fathers and to help us get rid of artificial divisions arising from colonially imposed languages and superficial differences. Equally importantly, we implore you to give us a fighting chance through positive reportage as we try to address a legacy of administrative inefficiencies, non-compliance with AU principles and values, and growing questions over our impact and relevance”.

“We, therefore, need the press as an ally as we embark on the process of rebuilding the image of the PAP. In fact, one of the common challenges articulated by Members of Parliament through the respective Regional Caucuses is that PAP is not visible and is generally not known amongst the African Citizenry. The press, therefore, remains indispensable in acting as a vehicle of information dissemination in the continent and beyond even in the face of a dynamic and evolving media and technology environment”.

we are also cognizant that in order for you to effectively cover parliaments in general and the Pan African Parliament in particular, you need to have an intimate appreciation of parliamentary processes and procedures, the origin, mandate, Rules of Procedure, membership and structure, among others. It is also important for you to understand the process involved in discharging the duties assigned to the institution and its role to “promote human rights and consolidate democratic institutions and culture, good governance transparency and the rule of law by all AU organs, Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and Member States.”

I say this with particular reference to the aborted May 2021 elective session as a classic case in point of the need for capacity building of the media. Admittedly, the session rightly attracted negative media coverage as it should have. However, there were notable discrepancies and factual inaccuracies in the reporting, thus displaying the confusion around basic details about the PAP. It thus dawned on us that it was imperative to convene regular workshops of this nature to ensure that the media has a basic appreciation of the Pan African Parliament and its operations so that reporting is factual and accurate. With the media’s power to control the minds of the masses it would be unfortunate, nay tragic, to do so based on factual inaccuracies and half-truths that are peddled as fact. It is my hope, therefore, that this workshop will engender a better appreciation of the Pan African Parliament and its processes and procedures so that you are better able to report on what we do and heighten the visibility of the PAP in the continent and beyond”.

The journey towards rebranding the PAP begins now. We are your elected representatives and we are all in this together. Let us help each other to project a positive image of Africa and its institutions to a sceptical and disbelieving world. In your reporting, always bear in mind that you are the voice of Africa to the world and our operative mantra should always be “One Africa, One Voice” he concluded.

In his welcome remarks, the Acting Clerk of the Parliament, Mr. Gali Massa Harou, stated that the training organized by the PAP’s Media and Communication Unit was of great importance.

“The PAP is a continental public institution with a mission of expressing the concerns and aspirations of the African people. The media, in turn, disseminates the information. The media is an important partner as highlighted in the African Governance Architecture which is meant to promote democracy, democratic governance, and the rule of law. Thus, the media is the vehicle to disseminate information and activities of the PAP as well as the aspirations of the African people. The workshop is a platform for the media to acquaint themselves with Parliamentary activities and initiatives as well as to convey information about African people’s aspirations. The workshop will be an important step towards achieving the objectives of the PAP,” he said.

In his presentation titled Overview of the AGA Platform”, African Governance Architecture (AGA) Embedded Expert, Dr. George Mukundi disclosed that the African Governance Architecture supported the PAP media training workshop. He used the opportunity of his presentation to trace the formation of the African Union (AU) and the subsequent birth of the Africa Agenda 2063 and the African Governance in 2013.

The PAP Legal Counsel, Clement Mavungu made a presentation on “Introduction to the Legal and Institutional Framework of the Pan-African Parliament” while Mr. Ibrahim Jagne, Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Officer at the Parliament, made a presentation on “Pan-African Parliament Strategic Plan”.

The Executive Director of Parliamentary Network Africa (PNAfrica), Mr. Sammy Obeng, made a presentation on “The Role of Parliament and the Media in Promoting Parliamentary Openness.

In her closing remarks, the Third Vice President of the Parliament, Hon. Lúcia Maria Mendes Gonçalves dos Passos (Mrs) implored the workshop participants to henceforth be messengers of the Parliament and promised to mobilize the necessary resources to ensure the implementation of the objectives of the workshop.

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