Two senior and vastly experienced journalists from Uganda have been selected by the African Union to mentor a group of young journalists on the AU media fellowship programme.
Benon Herbert Oluka, the Africa Editor at the Global Investigative Journalism Network of (GIJN) and David Mukholi, a former senior editor at The New Vision will mentor 20 journalists selected from various countries in Africa during the one year fellowship. This is the second AU Media Fellowship cohort.
Oluka has served as a reporter and editor in The East African, Daily Monitor, and The Observer newspapers. He’s also had work stints at the Reuters news agency’s sub-Saharan Africa Bureau in Johannesburg, South Africa and the BBC world service radio’s Newsday programme in London, United Kingdom.
He told Bbeg Media that, “it is a unique privilege to have this opportunity to be part of a group of experts that the African Union has called on to prop up the fellows by enhancing the skills we hope they will use to tell the authentic African story to the rest of Africa and the world. I am also thankful to my employer, the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN), for giving me the go-ahead to contribute to the AU Media Fellowship’s quest to skill African media professionals.”
Other mentors are; Chaacha Mwita, as former group editorial director at Standard Media Group in Kenya and Tunisian Asma Abidi, an award winning Tunisian journalist whose works have appeared on several platforms such as Correspondents.org, BBC Arabic, Deutsche Welle Arabic, OpenDemocracy.
According to a press release, the fellowship is designed to provide a unique platform for African journalists and content producers to enhance their capacity to reframe the African narrative and promote developmental journalism using new and emerging technologies.
It is in line with the 2017 resolution by the African Union Ministers of Communication and Information Communication Technologies (STC-CICT) — a commitment to bolster media engagement as a potent tool to highlight the milestones of Agenda 2063.
The 20 journalists are currently undergoing orientation in Ethiopia and will head to South Africa for an enriching study tour. One of the fellows is Ronald Musoke, who works for the Independent news magazine in Uganda.
“This tour promises immersion in a diverse range of networking sessions hosted by esteemed AU organs and specialised agencies, including the AU Pan-African Parliament, African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD), Africa Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), and Africa Risk Capacity (ARC),” the AU noted in a statement.
The AU Media Fellows 2023 are:
Adesewa Olofinko (Nigeria); Dámaso Nsue Eyang (Equatorial Guinea); David Casimir (Mauritius); Jacqueline Segahungu (Burundi); Jan Bornman (South Africa); Jibi Maring (South-Sudan); Joel Hevi (Togo); Keletso Thobega (Botswana); Maurice Thantan (Benin); Melissa Lemos (Mozambique); Meriyem Kokaina (Morocco); Moetasm Mohamed (Egypt); Mohamed Mohamud (Somalia); Nobantu Modise (Zambia); Prince Sankanu (Gambia); Ronald Musoke (Uganda); Tuyeimo Haidula (Namibia); Wakini Njogu (Kenya); William Kumwembe (Malawi); Yasmine Bouldjedri (Algeria).
