A BIRTH OF A NEW JOURNALISM BODY IMMINENT & GHANA TO HOST THE Ist CONTINENTAL HIV/AIDS CONFERENCE.

Madi Ceesay, director of Media Agenda and President of the Gambia Press Union is leaving for Abuja Nigeria and Ghana respectively early this month to attend two important conferences. First to Abuja on 11 November 2007 where he will join several other national Presidents of press unions from all over the continent. The objective of the conference is to set up a continental union of journalists.

In an exclusive interview with the news and current affair of media agenda, he said the idea of such a body came as a result of the African caucus meeting during the International Federation of Journalist (IFJ) congress held in Moscow May of this year. At that meeting Ceesay who is an executive member of IFJ, said the African caucus meeting felt that there is a need for such a union.

The Nigerian Union of Journalists volunteered to host the maiden meeting where the possibility of such a body can be discussed at length. The NUJ was ready to foot the bill the conference. “We can see it on other continents so why not on ours” Ceesay said. Asked what will come off the various regional unions like the West African Association of Journalists (WAJA). Ceesay said they will still exist, this one may take the form of federation but the final day of the conference will provide answers to all such questions.

Asked if at the end of this conference African journalists   will see a union that one can look upon for redress of violations of the rights of media workers, He responded     by saying very well. This one with the consolidated efforts of the regional ones   we will definitely make a difference. He lamented that in al most all countries in Africa there is one kind of violation of the rights of the media or the other. The rights of the journalists are not respected by people who were suppose to do so.

However Ceesay said “we are not going to come up with an executive body, rather the meeting is to come up with a sub committee that will see us through to the final stages of a continental union.”

  On the other hand t he Woyome Foundation for Africa’s is poised to host its   1st International African HIV/AIDS Conference from 28 ^th – 30 ^th November in Accra, Ghana. The conference will focus on Strengthening Interventions towards the Elimination HIV/AIDS in Africa .

The Foundation’s 1 ^st International African HIV/AIDS Conference is a participative and action-oriented programme for Media Organizations, Representatives of the National AIDS Commission/Council/Authority, NGO representative, and Persons Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). HIV/Aids is a global pandemic, which has taken many productive lives over the past two decades .the condition has brought about fear and anxiety   in the world around us and the retroviral nature of virus has made it difficulty to control, and this is exacerbated by the in ability to discover how the virus come about.

The Director is to attend the above conference as media personnel and at the same time as an NGO representative. Mr. Ceesay will leave Banjul on the 27 for Accra .

In a press release from the organizers, it indicated that the problem associated with the pandemic cuts across health, social, developmental and psychological spectra of our societies. The UN millennium declaration of 8 September 2000, enjoined member countries to halt and begin the reverse the spread of HIV/Aids in June 2001,heads of states and Government re-committed themselves in a declaration on HIV/Aids” global crisis-Global Africa” to ensure an urgent, coordinated and sustained response to HIV/Aids.

WAFA, in their release continued to say that all efforts must be made to reduce the spread and effectively managed the pandemic. Africa is currently a victim of the pandemic with statistics showing that sub-sharan Africa accounts for over 70% of the prevalence globally. Africa and other third world countries have received little political commitment and this has affected the fight very badly.