Determined Mozambican journalists have a new forum to express, share and unburden with fellow colleagues and community leaders.
For more than thirty years now journalists there worked amid threats and bureaucratic hurdles for freedom of expression and access to information with little support. The murder of investigative journalist Carlos Cardoso in 2000 still weighs on their minds. The forum, “Newsroom Debates,” provides a much-needed venue to build professional networks and get feedback from decision-makers about the governance process.
"This is the space that has gone missing for ages," said Armando Nenane, Executive Secretary of the Mozambican Association of Judiciary Journalism.
Since it was established in October 2012, “Newsroom Debates” has hosted four events of its kind, bringing to the table of discussion topics such as:
• political influence in community radio,
• working conditions of journalists in Mozambique,
• women in media,
• the relationship between the media and the judiciary.
"Coming to the [Newsroom Debates] has been in fact an opportunity to drink from the fountain of the real concerns of journalists and learn from them on ways to improve our work," commented Ernestina Chirindja, labor inspector of the Government of Mozambique.
The forum is part of IREX’s Media Strengthening Program (MSP) for Mozambique [6], funded by USAID [7]. MSP supports Mozambican professional and community journalists and their media platforms to provide high-quality information to citizens and promote accountability and development.