Sunday, May 22, 2011

African Elections Project Launches myliberiawins and Media Guide

African Elections Project, an election monitoring organization based in the West African state of Ghana, has launched a website that will provide information about Liberia's pending elections.The website www.myliberiawins .org will provide news, results, analysis, violence monitoring and features about Liberia's electoral activities and other national issues.

According to William Sam of the African Elections Project, Liberia will make the total of 11 countries that they have monitored their elections over the past years.He named those countries their activities had been in as Ghana, Mauritania, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Botswana, Togo, Guinea, Cote d'Ivoire and Niger.

Speaking as a guest launcher on May 19, 2011 at the Corina Hotel in Sinkor, Monrovia, the Professor for Mass Communication at the University of Liberia, Joe W. Mulbah stressed the importance of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) and said it is incumbent upon journalists of contemporary days to know their uses in the profession.Professor Mulbah said unlike past days when journalists only relied on pen and paper to communicate, more devices have come as a result of advancement in technology that communication is now done through different means.

"Today technology has improved, and communication is done through various means that pen and paper are becoming less important. Journalists nowadays have to learn computer, or else you will be wasting your own time," Professor Mulbah stressed.

Opposition politician Charles Brumskine who also attended the launching ceremony told journalists at the program to be ethical and give equal coverage to all parties in the elections.
He said the upcoming presidential election is a 'great moment' in the political history of Liberia that the media has a critical role to play to prevent conflict.

In addition to role journalists must play in the election, the Secretary General of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), Acarus Gray told journalists to be independent and give equal access to all parties as their ethics require.

Also commenting on the role of journalists in the coming elections, the President of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL), Peter Quaqua warned Liberian journalists whether member or nonmember of the PUL to work in accordance with the code of conduct of the umbrella organization.

Speaking specifically to journalists from Monrovia and rural community radio stations who attended the launching ceremony, Mr. Quaqua warned them to be conscious of what politicians say about their opponents, noting, "if a politician uses any unacceptable language against another and you do not stop him/her but allow it to continue, you will be a facilitator of the conflict that may arise".

The African Elections Project was established in 2008 with the vision of enhancing the ability of journalists, citizen journalists and the news media to provide more timely and relevant information and knowledge about elections, while monitoring specific and important aspects of governance in their countries.

The African Elections Project in Liberia directly responds to the need for an Information and Communication Technology (ICT), based platform to monitor election incidents of violence, irregularities and human rights abuses, spanning the period of pre-elections, and advancing human freedom in Liberia.


AEP

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