2006 Archives
The Embassy celebrates World Press Freedom Day with a Round Table Panel Discussion at the Advanced School of Mass Communication (University of Yaoundé II), Yaoundé
May 3, 2006
The Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy in Yaoundé in collaboration with the organizers of Feminia, a burgeoning association of African women journalists, partnered to present a Round Table discussion of five high-profile panelists on the subject of “Freedom of Expression, Gender and Access to the Media.” The Round table discussion took place at the Advanced School of Mass Communication of the University of Yaoundé II in Yaoundé. The panelists had individual strengths in journalism, social science and education. The audience was largely comprised of students of the country’s number one school of journalism. The relative absence of women’s voices in the media—as either interviewers or interviewees—was discussed along with society’s expectations of the professional female journalist.
A student of journalism, when asked what he had learned from the discussion, said he now understood that “women’s voices needed to be heard, but that it will take men to facilitate their integration in the media.” Capturing the mood of the attending crowd, an article in the next day’s press referred to the “passion” of certain exchanges. The panelist from academia told all present, “we have a mission to shape our youth.” The Information Officer of the Embassy took advantage of the key audience and the occasion to read aloud a portion of the World Press Freedom Day Echo Chamber message (“Freedom of the press is essential …”) as part of her introductory remarks.