Federation of Somali Journalists (FESOJ) and Finnish Foundation for Media and Development (VIKES) with the support of European Union Mission for Somalia launch a new advocacy campaign for Somali journalists’ labor rights with the aim to improve the internal governance of media organizations and strengthen the commitment of media owners and editors in ensuring respect for clearly defined professional labor standards.
The advocacy campaign will target journalists working for 25 selected media outlets in all parts of Somalia. `This initiative is part of the second implementation phase of a joint VIKES and FESOJ project, launched last year and funded by the EU in which were trained around 200 journalists and media administrators.
The main of objective of the advocacy campaign for Somali journalists’ labor rights is
To discuss with the journalist employees and make a baseline assessment of the
situation at each media house and their challenges
To discuss with the employee how they can get better organized to
start campaigning for their rights to collective bargaining, winning better working conditions and extending social justice and professional rights.
“As part of the project launch, we have already started meeting with local media administrators and fellow journalists based in Mogadishu. `Next we are planning to take the message to other media houses located in other cities across the country” Farah Omar Nur Secretary of Training and Development of FESOJ said.
“In 2018, our focus was on building the capacity of media administrators and journalists through routine trainings on labor rights but this time we intend to actively advocacy for labour rights and our hope is that FESOJ will eventually sign the Memorandum of Understanding with all media managers” Farah added.
“Our priority is to provide a platform for stronger advocacy and solidarity on
measures for the improvement of the working and welfare conditions of journalists in the private media and collaborate on all legitimate measures that would lead to the emergence of Collective Bargaining and the enthronement of a minimum Condition of Service with country-wide applicability “Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimuu Secretary General of Federation of Somali Journalist said.
“FESOJ brings together more than 1000 journalists across Somalia to promote media freedom and ethical standards, therefore FESOJ and VIKES are now seeking to advocate for better working conditions of journalists and media workers in Somalia to support quality journalism and build trust in media”Abadir Abdulkadir Elmi FESOJ President said during the launch of labor rights advocacy campaign for Somalia journalists and media.
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