URI Africa Continental Coordinator Ambassador Mussie Hailu meets with the Chief Executive Officer of African Media Initiative Eric Chinje.
Two Continental Organizations Agree to Work to Strengthen Media Capacity to Report on Peace and Conflict in Africa
18 November, 2014, Nairobi: The African Media Initiative (AMI) and the United Religions Initiative (URI) have agreed to work together to develop a network of journalists that will focus on issues of peace and conflict in Africa. An agreement in principle was reached during a meeting on Wednesday in Nairobi between the Regional Director of the URI, Ambassador Mussie Hailu, and the Chief Executive Officer of AMI, Eric Chinje.
The meeting discussed AMI’s programme to work with media professionals to reduce the gap between media content and the development agenda of African countries, including efforts to guarantee peaceful coexistence on the continent. Ambassador Hailu pointed out the critical importance of the religious dimension in peace building and the need to incorporate that into AMI’s training programmes.
We espouse the Golden Rule of “doing to others as you would have them do to you and believe this to be a solid basis for peace on this continent,” he said, pointing out that this is not separate from all other efforts to ensure lasting peace in Africa. Chinje agreed, noting that development cannot take place in an environment of conflict. Which is why all regional actors involved in peace-building should contribute to efforts to bring media into their programmes.
Ambassador Hailu expressed his pleasure with AMI’s development-focused agenda and welcomed the opportunity of working together towards that objective.
Reposted from the African Media Initiative (AMI)
