Women journalists urged to take up leadership positions

Mar 28, 2019

“In Ugandan women, I have seen some of the most determined, enduring, natural born leaders and entrepreneurs who are resilient and filled with unmatched passion and pride for what they do," says Ambassador Susan Eckey.

MEDIA

KAMPALA - The Norwegian Ambassador to Uganda, Susan Eckey, has urged the women in the media to rise to the challenge of leadership and management in their respective media houses.

Eckey made the remarks during the launch of the Women in News Uganda (WIN Uganda) first national gathering 2019 at Hotel Africana in Kampala yesterday. The event brought together women in the media from various media houses including print, radio and TV.

Eckey asked the women journalists to be brave and fight the stereotyping in society.

"In Ugandan women, I have seen some of the most determined, enduring, natural born leaders and entrepreneurs who are resilient and filled with unmatched passion and pride for what they do," she said.

 hhhhh Norwegian Ambassador to Uganda, Susan Eckey

 

‘‘Media is about culture and media is culture. Women are marginalised by culture. Sexual harassment is unacceptable and something should be done to curb the vice,'' Eckey said.

She urged women to take on more challenging roles such as becoming vibrant in areas of politics, commentary on financial matters and roles which are highly coveted, but occupied by mainly men.

 hhhh A well-attended meeting it was at Hotel Africana in Kampala

 

 



The Vision Group, Editor-in- Chief, Barbara Kaija, thanked the Norwegian embassy for sponsoring the programme, which is the first of its kind in Uganda. Kaija urged the participants to take the programme seriously because its success would pave the way for more training opportunities.

She said the WIN Uganda programme was the perfect opportunity to help train women in management positions in the media. "In the newsrooms, people are just appointed into managerial positions without proper prior training and because of this, they face challenges coping with managing their colleagues," Kaija said.

 gggggg Vision Group Editor-in-Chief Barbara Kaija

 

She asked women to learn to openly discuss challenges in their workplaces for them to be able to scale the ranks. The executive director for Uganda Women's Association, Margaret Ssentamu, highlighted the plight that women in journalism suffer such as some not being given maternity or annual leave.

The programme has been running in nine countries in East, Central and southern Africa for more than four years.

The WIN African director, Tikhala Chibwana, urged participants to apply themselves wholly in the coaching programme, saying they have been assigned the very best coaches.

 hhhhh WIN African director Tikhala Chibwana

 

Penlope Nankunda, a contributing editor at New Vision, who is also among the participants, thanked the facilitators for the opportunity saying it will help them work through the challenges that they face in the workplace.

 hh Margaret Ssentamu, the executive director of Uganda Media Women Association

 

WIN Uganda WIN Uganda is a media development arm within WAN-IFRA, which is a global organisation of the world's newspapers and news publishers, representing more than 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3,000 companies in more than 120 countries.


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  WATCH: 'Determined, enduring and fighting spirits'


The Women in News Programme is part of WANIFRA's development work to strengthen the capacity of media institutions by addressing poor representation of women in senior management positions.

 hh Barbara Kaija and Ambassador Susan Eckey exchange a handshake

 

 

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