SPEECH DELIVERED COMMISSIONER DR BERTHA SIMWAKA DURING THE OPENING OF TRAINING FOR STRINGERS 24TH JULY, 2013 CAPITAL CITY MOTEL, LILONGWE Fellow Commissioners The Chief Elections Officer, Mr Willie Kalonga and all staff from MEC secretariat Our facilitators led by Mr Elard Manjawira from The Polytechnic Distinguished Participants Members of the Press Ladies and Gentlemen Good morning, This is another great event to be organized by MEC as we prepare for the 2014 Tripartite Elections and I feel greatly honoured to make a few remarks to you our new members of the MEC family First, I should start by congratulating all of you for making it as MEC stringers. It was not an easy process as the competition was stiff. During the 2009 elections we had about 76 stringers but this time around we have 40 openings which also stiffened the process. The fact that you have made it should be something that should make you proud of yourself and should also boost your confidence that you can deliver a good work. I have been informed that the selection process was rigorous as there were written and oral tests. This gives me the confidence that what we have recruited is the crème de la crème amongst those who applied to be employed as stringers. Ladies and gentlemen, you are welcome aboard flight “2014 Tripartite Elections” and our destination is May 20, 2014. We have a mission to accomplish and this is to deliver a free, fair and credible election in 2014. It is the expectation of the Commission that you will all contribute to the achievement of this mission. The Commission is geared to deliver an election that will be a model to other countries. This cannot be achieved by the Commissioners alone but by combined efforts of everyone in the chain. Distinguished participants, there is a saying that “a chain is as strong as its weakest link”. The Commission is determined to build capacity of its staff and stakeholders at all levels. That is why we had to organize this training for you before deployment. We know all of you have been to journalism schools and know about journalism but we felt there is still something that needs to be added to your knowledge that will help you perform better. Some of you have been stringers before and definitely did attend a similar training last time but I challenge you that knowledge is dynamic and there are still many things that you will learn from this training. Moreover, we are having Tripartite Elections and we need to explain to you about this so that you can also explain to the general public through your articles. Therefore, I urge all of you to pay maximum attention to what will be shared during this training. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to say that there is high expectation from the Commission from you. We expect to see your articles in the papers and also on the radio often. The Commission has come up with a monitoring mechanism and be warned that laziness and poor performance will not be tolerated. We expect results from you. Let me also warn you from absenting from work. Some have a habit of not reporting to their workstation once deployed. We will be checking on you now and then and once found we will take disciplinary action as an employer. The Commission has employed you to work with all media houses, whether public, private or community. You should not choose the media house to work with . You are under obligation to assist them. That is the whole essence of having you in place as a stringer. We will get all your contacts and give them to the media and we will also give you the contacts for all media houses that you will need to send your stories. You will also be required to send your stories to the MEC office for monitoring purposes. Details will be provided during the training. Before I conclude, let me remind you that MEC is an independent and non-partisan organisation and we do not take sides. We also expect you as members of this family to do the same. You will cover political rallies but we do not want you to participate in their affairs. We should not get reports that you were seen in party regalia at a rally or you were a cheerleader at a rally. We will take disciplinary action. We also expect you to treat all parties and candidates equally. Do not show favoritism, you need to cover them all. Lastly, be cautious of the social media. The MEC in partnership with MISA Malawi, the Media Council of Malawi and all media houses in the country came up with a media code of conduct. This code of conduct also applies to the social media. I would urge you, that while under the employment of MEC you desist from posting remarks or materials on the social media that can compromise your neutrality as a journalist and also as an employee of MEC. You will be employees of MEC but you are not allowed to express an opinion on behalf of MEC. We have our own mechanism of dealing with such matters as these. Fellow Commissioners, Distinguished Facilitators, Distinguished Participants, it is now my honour and privilege to declare this training officially opened. I wish you all a successful training period and God bless you. May God bless Malawi Thank you very much
Posted on: Wed, 24 Jul 2013 07:37:52 +0000
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