Chairman of the Independent Media Commission, Rod Mac Johnson has said in Freetown that his organisation’s three –year Strategic Plan for 2013 – 2015 “provides a roadmap on where we wish to go and how; it provides donor and local development partners that wish to work with us a sense of how we view ourselves and what we deem as strategic in the next three years.”
Johnson said “by clearly stating Programme and Strategy types we are also giving a clear indication of those strategies we deem suitable for the environment we are in and what can be deployed.”
The IMC boss was speaking at a ceremony at Miatta Conference hall on Monday where he launched the Strategic Plan and maps locating all media organizations throughout Sierra Leone.
He argued that “in an economic environment that demands forward planning we are providing partners and Government an idea of what our needs are; where we should strive for joint programming or pooled funding and
where our cooperation may demand technical expertise as opposed to financial support.”
Johnson spoke about what he called challenges confronting the IMC which according to him, include “continued financial dependence on donor partners; competing interests within the broad sector of national media development an increasing demand on the Commission to play a coordinating role among media organizations and an over-stretched demand on the administrative and technical capacity of the Commission.”
Speaking about the media maps the IMC chairman said the tool will be useful to International Election Observers, The National Electoral Commission, Development Partners and donors, and local partners and media institutions needing basic data on the number of functional media institutions by regions and classifications.
Hassan Jalloh of the UNDP, the IMC’s main funding partner told the gathering that his organization is impressed with the work of the IMC so far. Jalloh said the IMC should strictly enforce its rules and so drive up quality reporting in newspapers and on radio.
The UNDP official said the IMC should consider instituting minimum qualification as a requirement for entry into Journalism.
