A non-profit organisation known as Africa Foundation for Young Media Practitioners (AFYMP) says there are generic opportunities for young female journalists in the Media ecology.

Executive Director of AFYMP, Yinka Olaito said this on Wednesday, August 2, 2023 at a workshop for young female journalists and students of drawn from Mass Communication Departments of tertiary institutions in Rivers State.

He said the workshop was aimed at training young female journalists in Rivers State to equip them with knowledge that will aid them with identifying, developing and empowering their career as the next generation of experts in the media industry.

“For the women in Journalism we have four categories like we have said; we have the Media Entrepreneurship, which is for Media start-ups. We also have Campus Journalism which we held yesterday for Campus journalists. We also have disability and inclusion for those who are interested in disability and inclusion reporting.”

“The purpose of this programme, which is Women in Journalism, is to identify, develop and empower the next generation of Women in Journalism early enough so that they can break the glass ceiling in the Media Industry.”

One of the resource persons and an On-Air-Personality, Chioma Ezenwafor delivered a lecture on “Preparing and Leading Newsrooms Today: Innovation and Management for Maximum Output” and “Staying Power as a Female Media Professional” during the plenary session.

She charged young media practitioners to have and inculcate values and attitudes that will help them grow, dissecting the acronym “Staying Power” into active words that was explained to guide them in their day to day tasks.

Also, another resource person, Atat Charles, who took the session on “Trends in Media Law, Ethics, Pitch and Grant Writing”, exposed his audience to opportunities that they can leverage on and be prosperous, drawing their attention to laws that should guide them in the course of practising, calling for a review of the Cyber Crime Act 2015.

“Hold our leaders more accountable and look at the implementation of the Cyber Crime Act 2015 Law, because it’s quite ridiculous that you would be either fined seven million naira or spend three years in jail for making a publication of someone and the person gets offended so you get fined with libel.”

“I think that Law needs to be looked at because at the end of the day you will be scared to even make a publication and it even covers people who make posts on social media. We’ve seen that happen, so I think that lawmakers should go back and look at that law and make it more open.”

One of the participants, who only identified herself as Janet, happily expressed her gratitude, describing the event as a wonderful experience for her.

“What I’ve gathered here today, is actually a wonderful experience for me because it has actually exposed me to a lot of things I don’t know when it comes to Mass Communication, Journalism.”

“Actually, I’m a student of Linguistics and Communications Studies. I dwell more on the linguistics and not the communication. But now, what I’ve learnt has sparked my interest, I’ve become particularly interested in the Journalism aspect.”