By Sharon Kyatusiimire
The third conference on reporting migration kicked off at Uganda Christian University (UCU) in Mukono, Uganda today with a call for refugees’ issues to be prioritized by both the media and journalism training institutions.
UCU is part of a group of 37 universities from 28 countries who have been implementing a Communicating Migration and Mobility (CoMMPASS) project with funding from the European Union.
The CoMMPASS project, now in its third year, is an online learning platform aimed at empowering African journalists and journalism students to report on migration and mobility with accuracy, ethics and impact.
Speaking at the opening ceremony on Monday, the UCU Vice Chancellor, Professor Aaron Mushengyezi appreciated the project implementing universities and development partners for collaborating on this initiative. He emphasized the need for factual and objective reporting on migration due to its sensitive nature.
“Mobility, especially forced migration, is a very sensitive matter that requires careful reporting. I urge our journalists to be professional as they report on this issue. I also look forward to more partnerships in this area,” he said.
Professor Aaron Mushengyezi, Vice Chancellor of Uganda Christian University.
The keynote speaker, Prof. Ralph Afolabi Akinfeleye, from New City University in Nigeria, highlighted the negative impact social media is having on the reporting of migration issues and called upon journalists to uphold ethical standards.
“Reporting on migration is not as glamorous as reporting on politics or scandals. Therefore, journalists need to go beyond inverted pyramid-style reporting and conduct more research before producing a story,” he noted.
He also called for reforms in journalism and communication curricula to keep pace with the changing environment in modern newsrooms.
The European Union representative, Prof. Susanne Fengler, appreciated all participating partners for making the project a success and noted that there was a need for a sustainability program to ensure that more journalists are trained in migration and mobility reporting because it has become a crucial areas of interest globally.
The five-day conference has brought together participants from 37 universities across 28 countries that are implementing the CoMMPASS project. The event is expected to highlight and address the challenges faced in reporting on migration and mobility in Uganda and across the continent.
Among the participating institutions in the project include Uganda’s Makerere University and Uganda Christian University; The University of Livingstonia and Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences from Malawi; Université Joseph KI-ZERBO and Université Thomas Sankara from Burkina Faso; The Technical University Dortmund in Germany; and The University of Lisbon in Portugal.
The list also has Addis Ababa University and Haramaya University in Ethiopia; Universidade Lusófona da Guiné in Guinea-Bissau; the University of Cape Coast in Ghana and Université de Yaoundé II in Cameroon.
Others are Paul University in Nigeria and Daystar University in Kenya.
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