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The Forum of Women Journalists of Africa "Les Panafricaines" will hold its 2nd edition in Casablanca on October 26 and 27, 2018
Casablanca, October 2, 2018 - The press conference presenting the second edition of the Forum of Women Journalists of Africa "Les Panafricaines", organized by 2M Group, was held today in Casablanca, in the presence of journalists representing the national media, as well as the panafrican and international press accredited in Morocco. Salim Cheikh, Managing Director of the 2M Group, and Fathia Elaouni, Senior Editor-in-Chief in charge of Radio 2M Broadcast, were the speakers at the conference.
"This event is, for us, a natural extension of the values carried by the channel and especially that which is dear to us and concerns the legitimate place of women in our societies and more particularly in our region. This is what we have been doing through the remarkable work of the 2M Parity and Diversity Committee for more than 5 years", Salim Cheikh, Group Managing Director 2M
The event, to be held on October 26 and 27, 2018 in Casablanca will bring together 200 journalists from all 54 countries of the continent, and will focus on a complex issue, namely the media treatment of migration issues.
Indeed, since 2010, migratory movements occupy a large place in the world news. Today, the UN estimates that more than 258 million people live outside their native country, which represents 3.4% of the world's population. For political, economic or social reasons, nearly 66 million people in the world have left their region or country in 2016 alone. Among this population, there are 22.5 million refugees, half of whom are under 18 years old. Therefore, the question of the media treatment of migration issues arises, from preconceived ideas, prejudices, regional biases, simplistic treatments and distortion of reality.
"It is time to deconstruct," one by one "the myths associated with migration [...] (which) is a natural phenomenon that is the solution and not the problem," said His Majesty Mohamed VI in Addis Ababa in January 2018 (African Union Summit).
The deconstruction of these myths is largely the responsibility of media. Inaccurate or biased treatment has the effect of distorting the migrant's perceptions, nurturing stigmatization and rejection, and may even lead to misinformation. The challenge for journalists is to advocate for a fair treatment of migration issues, whatever their complexity.
Thus, the organizers of the second edition of "Les Panafricaines" Forum, under the theme "African Migrations: A Chance for the Continent, a Responsibility for the Media", have set 6 main objectives:
To this end, the organizers have elaborated a rich and participative program over two days of work, which will allow “Les Panafricaines” to exchange around various themes related to the central issue of the event.
"This is not just another forum, it is not a mere conference. For two days we will really work, we will decide together the actions that we will undertake for the coming year", Fathia Elaouni, Senior Editor in Chief of the 2M Radio Antenna.
The first day of the Forum will be devoted to debates, with a morning debate on the theme "From one bank to another, for a fair look at migrants". The meeting will feature prominent migration experts such as Larry Macaulay (Nigeria), founder and editor-in-chief of Refugee Radio Network in Hamburg, Germany, Rafaella Consentino (Italy), reporter for the TV channel. Rai "specializes in migration issues, Driss El Yazami (Morocco), President of the National Council for Human Rights (CNDH), and Patrick Otim (Uganda), a specialist in migration and member of the organization" Refugee Law Project In Kampala. Samira Sitaïl, Deputy Managing Director in charge of information and magazines of 2M, will moderate the discussion.
In the afternoon, “Les Panafricaines" will meet behind closed doors for a series of workshops whose work will form the basis of a concrete action plan to place migration issues at the heart of the continent's public concerns. Seven workshops are planned:
WORKSHOP 1: "What Journalistic Treatment of Migration Issues? "
WORKSHOP 2: "Wandering Minors, How to Understand a Complex Phenomenon? "
WORKSHOP 3: "Women's Mobility: a New Migratory Dynamic"
WORKSHOP 4: "Climate Migration and Food Security"
WORKSHOP 5: "Intra-African Migration: a Chance for Development"
WORKSHOP 6: "African Migration: the Importance of Reliable Data Availability"
WORKSHOP 7: "Structures and Organizational Model of Les Panafricaines Network"
The next day, and after presenting restitution work of each workshop, “Les Panafricianes” will decide by electronic vote on the hierarchy of priorities of their action plan for 2018/2019.
