About – Society Of Journalists Africa

WHO WE ARE

We assemble, build and empower journalists with investigative and revolutionary skills in storytelling
and right attitude to develop and own their expertise, specialization and journalistic principles in fields
of journalism. We believe this will create avenue for our members to gain a formidable force of
regional block with collective efforts underpinned with international best practices to set agenda in all
economic sectors and campaign for sustainable development, geared towards improving lives of the
citizenry on the Africa continent.

Mr. Alex Ababio

Executive Director/President

Curious to know more about our Association? Contact us now…

SOCIETY OF JOURNALISTS –AFRICA (SOJA)

Center for building journalists specialization is a non-profit
and non-partisan organization that believes, citizenry involvement and participation is precursor of
social justice, accountability and equitable distribution of nation’s wealth through democratic
governance which can be realized in a civilized society only when; the populace are well in tuned in
democratic tenets and economically empowered as contributing members of society to effect positive
change.
We believe to attain this status ,a well trained journalists should play a more critical role in advocacy
through our media platform ,Explora to enlighten the citizenry by diving deep and launching free
exchange of information(Well researched articles ) that will greatly inform the people to see themselves
as frontiers of democracy and sustainable development., We work in these thematic areas to ensure
that our journalists attained specialization status.

We also have sharp razor understanding that journalism should mirror every sphere of socio- economic
development of any country hence are resolve to groom our journalists in areas of agriculture, health
,education ,sports, entertainment, environment and sanitation, science ,information technology,
business and finance among other fields of journalism .
This is our competitive advantage to revolutionalise how journalism is practiced on the continent so
that we are set apart from other journalism originations on the continent to make a difference as best
institution to produce quality journalists in the field of journalism to champion development.

It is against this backdrop that we work to build attitudes and strong morale among our members for
them to develop more focused orientation , well shaped and more defined objectives and journalistic
principles to make greater and effective impact in their respective communities and wherever they find
themselves on the continent.

Explora

Our website and social media platform – is where we publish our work(Feature
articles, News commentaries, Opinions,Press statement).

WHERE WE WORK

We work in West , East, south and North Africa

MISSION STATEMENT

To promote and perk up scientific and innovative journalism by engaging and empowering
individual journalists on the Africa continent to gain strong advocacy skills ,in addition to top
notch writing skills in their own fields of journalism to help sustain developmental journalism
and protect democratic institutions and governance to ensure equitable distribution of wealth
,security and protection in improving living standards of the people, especially the poor in
Africa.

VISSION

To become a world leading organization at connecting journalists with specialization to
developmental journalism with a strong conviction to protect democratic governance and
improve living conditions of the people on the Africa continent.

IDEAL SCENERO

Goal
We believe that by 2030 we will have offices throughout Africa. We will be able to achieve this
by recruiting competent journalists to represent us to push for our agenda in strengthening
various private and public institutions in Africa to ensure living standard of the people,
especially the poor is well improved.

Current Scenario

Goal

We are currently building more robust , disciplined and efficient journalists and allied
professionals who have well aligned themselves to the vision and mission of the organization to ensure a well formidable foundation to sustain the forward march of the organization in the
direction serving our people on the continent well to make a difference. We will be able to do
this by organizing workshops, seminars, conferences and fellowships.

THEMATIC AREAS

1. Education
We believe that education which ever form it may come from is essential to upgrade skills and
knowledge of our journalists on the continent to help develop policy ideas and also do proper critique
of existing policies and programs of governments to facilitate socio-economic progress of the continent.
We believe that when our journalists are adequately be informed through either by formal or informal
education they will be much assertive in doing constructive analysis of government programs to
development so that they will in turn inform their audience in a more impactful ways so that they will
be able to hold their government accountable and also equip them to sustain civil society actions that
promote self reliance and peaceful co-existence which will gear towards national development. In this
connection, our primary objective as Society of Journalist is to serve as a connector between partners
and journalist for the later to receive quality education that empowers them to do exploit in shaping
national discourse for accelerated socio-economic progress of their various countries.

2. Advocacy
Society of Journalists –Africa seeks to be a first-rate vehicle that will facilitate training
opportunities such as workshops and seminars to develop hundreds of journalists in Africa
to enable them play their respected roles in informing the citizens on the continent to be
contributing members of their respective countries. It is our greatest responsibility to
help build journalists, especially young female journalists to play more critical role I their
countries. We believe this will build their confidence level in their advocacy role so they
will continue to engage the citizens in a more meaningful way to ensure they become role
models in spreading messages to inspire the entire citizenry to be more patriotic and
nationalistic for accelerated development.

3. Skills Development/Training
We are committed in providing specialized training opportunities for our compatriot
journalists to acquire competencies in their chosen fields in journalism to excel in their
endevours. Our journalists will be made to attend local ,national and international skills
development training to acquire different perspective and cultural based reportage that will
sell Africa in a more dignified manner to the rest of the world.

4.Research

Society of Journalists-Africa will commission our journalists on the continent and other
volunteers, especially those from western countries to undertake more intensive and
rigorous research to explore new ideas that will help solve critical social problems relating to
health,education,environment and sanitation among others impeding progress on the
continent. We work to undertake research work to advise Central and local government and
international community on how to improve living status of the people on the continent.

5. Investigative journalism

This is the very core of activities of what we do at Society of Journalist –Africa . We will train our
journalists to enhance their skills in investigative journalism and continually assign them to do both
undercover and groundbreaking stories .To us investigative journalism is our hallmark and we will
continue to work and build that resilience and character in our members to do excellent stories for our
audience.

Awards
One of our greatest passions to develop journalists with good reputation and influence that impact lives
in their various communities across Africa. In line with this noble and evidence based developmental
journalism practice , Society of Journalist –Africa will institute award scheme dubbed:’’ Impactful
journalism’’ to encourage members across Africa to change lives positively in their communities.
We will partner with other allied institutions that share the vision and goals of our noble organization to
reward our compatriot journalists on the continent to do exploit in their chosen fields.

Fellowships/Conferences
To gain international best practices in their various specializations, we will organize fellowships
and conferences for our journalists to enhance their skills and knowledge and also gain
professional experience through networking and exchange programs.

Projects
We will undertake projects that will allow our journalists to take a leadership role in the area
of project management, research, fund raising and proposal writing among others. We believe
this will sharpen their skills in related disciplines of journalism.

Travel reporting
We will organize field reporting trips for our journalists on the continent to experience other
jurisdictions and countries. We believe this will greatly inform them about other cultures
apart from their own thereby developing different perspectives in their approach of reporting.

HISTORY OF SOCIETY OF JOURNALISTS -AFRICA

Society of Journalist -Africa (Center for Building specialization of journalists) was established in 2012
with the aim of promoting quality journalism that will greatly institutionalized developmental
journalism across Africa to accelerate socio-economic progress of the various economies on the
continent.
Since its inception In 2012 in Ghana , Society of Journalists –Africa has played advocacy role in the
area of education in electioneering reportage, education against hate speech. in 2016,we initiated
series of programs to advocate for peaceful presidential and parliamentary elections . Some of the
activities we undertook included stakeholders engagements ,outreach programmes by our reporters
to engage body builders ,properly known as’ Machomen’ and this interactions were at length
embraced by the body builders .
Since 1992 up to the last presidential and parliamentary elections in 2016, these young body builders
were used to perpetrate violence in every electioneering campaign year in Ghana by some politicians.
With series of engagements by members of Society of Journalists –Africa , this aged long politically
violent conflict and charged and heightened tension issues which usually resulted in loss of properties
and precious lives were drastically reduced in especially those identified flash points in Ashanti region.

LEADERSHIP

The President of the Society of Journalists-Africa will automatically assume the role of
editorial Chairman of the Xplora, the 1st Vice president will also take charge of the
editor-in-chief position and the 2nd Vice president of the Society will be the managing
editor of Xplora.
The rest of the positions will be detailed in the constitution of Society of Journalist-
Africa.

Editorial Policy

The spirit and values of Society of Journalist-Africa’s web journalism platform,
Explora is defined and enshrined in the editorial guidelines and goals which have been
unanimously embraced by all the stakeholders.This means the collective interest of the
organization overrides any individual interest. Both the society of Journalists-Africa and its
online news portal, Explora is built on this very principles and policy guidelines, but not on the
strength, personality, interest and dictates of any member of the board, and executive committee.
The Board of the Society of Journalist –Africa together with the editorial board of Explora have
been charged to play a supervising role to keep an eye on the workings , operations and strict
adherence regarding the attainment of the policy guidelines and goals which have been
instituted for the smooth operation of Explora by the Board and all the stakeholders.
Policy Guidelines Outlined:
The Board and all the stakeholders of Society of Journalist –Africa are of the belief that the
utmost role of Explora is to promote democratic governance and socio-economic development
of Africa.
The society holds the view that the economies of Africa continent can only be accelerated in
growth to guarantee suitable development if only tenets of democracy is strictly adhered to
through freedom of speech and of the press as well as free market.

Core Values
1. Our website, Explora’s core value is to be resolute as independent media organization free
from any individual vested interest and external influence.
2. Our overriding principle is to be objective ,fair ,accurate and strive to ascertain the truth of
what we publish.
3. We will strive to produce and publish factual articles devoid of malice, fabrications and
sensationalism.
4.We will promote ethnic, racial, religious ,communal and political harmony and shun any acts
that seek to project any tribe, race and religion over other.
5.Our organization will encourage publications that seek to promote anything about
nationalism among member countries.
6.The Society through our News portal will support and promote human rights and civil rights
that is secured under the bedrock of principles of democracy that guarantees good governance,
transparency ,accountability, free and fair elections as well as social equity.

Editorial Objectives/Goals

1. Our organization’s objective is to establish itself as credible , authoritative and leading media
platform which is comparable to any international outlets in the world.
2. In our quest to maintain international standards, our editors will strive harder to avoid material
that is full of malice, vulgar and inflammatory.
3.Our editors will work harder so as to stay neutral in their political and religious analysis and
shun the temptation of imposing the views of their political party and religious affiliations to
influence their editorial judgment.
4.Our Editorial Board will periodically organize editorial meetings to set agenda for effective
direction and transformational leadership for total growth of the organization.
5. The board will organize editorial conferences and meetings to review the editorial policy
guidelines from time to time.
6. To promote a well formidable lively, enterprising and well informed articles, editorial board
will hold meetings with some relevant professional committee members every week either in
face to face or on virtual platform, particularly on whatsapp.
7. Our editorial comments written by an editor or group of editors represent opinion of the
editorial board and as such quorum should be taken on it through simple majority vote before it
will pass for publication. This decision will be taken after members have gone through the said
piece of writing with eagle eye.

Code of Conduct and Ethics

To maintain the highest professional and ethical standards, the following code is spelt out as
guide for all editors ,journalists and other professionals working for Society of Journalist –Africa
through our website, Explora.
1. The fundamental objective of every journalist is to report fairly, accurately and without
bias on the matters of public interest. In this regard, we will make sure all sides of a story
should be reported.
2. Whenever it is detected that inaccurate, misleading and distorted report has been
published , it should be corrected swiftly.
3. A fair opportunity to reply to inaccuracies should be given to individual or organizations
when appropriately requested for.
4. Confidentiality will be well respected as journalists have a moral obligation to protect
confidential sources.
5. We will stay away from publishing obscene ,vulgar or anything that will hurt sensibility
of the reading public.
6. We will as much as possible not entertain plagiarism. In this regard, our editors
,journalists, contributors will be continually be checked to avoid a situation where they
will pass of someone’s ideas as their own in their publications. However, all effort will be
made to give credit to the original owner whenever an idea or material of some sort is
borrowed.
7. We will strictly avoid discrimination against person’s race, tribe, sex, religion or physical
or mental illness.
8. People’s right to privacy will be strictly adhered to.
9. Editors and reporters of our organization should free themselves from any temptation and
conduct themselves in a manner that will protect them from conflict of interest.
10. We will strictly protect identity of minors(children) in cases concerning sexual offences,
whether as victims, witnesses or defendants .
11. Our organization shall refrain from identifying victims of sexual assault or publish
materials likely to contribute to such identification.
12. There should be no identification of a person or persons in a photograph unless their
identity is absolutely ascertained.