EDITORS, JOURNALISTS SHOULD BE FREE.

ROSE MWALONGO

 Ms Rose Mwalongo has advocated for the media owners, share holders and directors to leave the tendency of interfering journalists and editors in their news dissemination processes. 

Speaking during the panel discussion event at School of journalism and mass communication (sjmc) Ms Rose who is also a trainer for the Dar es Salaam Declaration on Editorial Freedom, independence and responsibility(DEFIR) said that it is necessary for these individuals to desist from using their influence in a manner that it is inimical to editorial independence. 

“Media owners should not use their decision making powers which affect the careers of editors and other journalists including recruitment, training, career advancement and tenure to grant favors or as an incentive to curb the freedom of practitioners”, she said 

 She added that the selection editors and journalists and their training, promotion and remunerations should be done solely on the basis of merit and without the interference of extraneous considerations like family ties. 

 She urged that editors must enjoy the contractual security of tenure and they may be dismissed only for specified infractions such as misconduct or incompetence after due enquiry 

 ‘The highly unemployment context should not bring professional misconduct for the editors and journalists or invalid demands to convince them practicing beyond or contrary the professionalism’, she stressed. 

 She added that media owners should kindly put policies that protect men and women against sexual harassment based on gender. 

 Panel discussion event was attended by the number of people and the main agenda was Nurturing upcoming media professional “ A road map to professional and ethical practice”