By Prince Henderson, ECM Communications Officer
Media Directors drawn from all Catholic media institutions in Malawi, on Tuesday met in the Capital, Lilongwe at Catholic Secretariat to strategize and enhance their collaboration and networking when discharging their duties which is mainly to evangelize the gospel through print and electronic media.
Opening the workshop, the Director of Social Development at the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM), Carsterns Mulume said following the new strategic plan which the Malawi Bishops approved, commissions or departments under his directorate are supposed to be well coordinated and network hence the reason the Social Communications department which is under this directorate called for the meeting.
Other Directorates under ECM are the Pastoral; and the Finance, Administration and Investment Directorate. In Social Development Directorate, commissions like the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP), Catholic Development Commission in Malawi (CADECOM), Catholic Health Commission (CHC), Catholic Education Commission (CEC) and the Social Communications forms part of it.
“For our goal in the directorate, we definitely need the media. For example, if CCJP wants to advance its advocacy drive, it means the media has to be in the forefront. So too, if Cadecom which does a lot of development work across the country needs to be publicizing its works for visibility hence the media plays a crucial role,” said Mulume formerly national Cadecom Secretary at ECM.
According to Mulume, for all this to be achieved, there is need for collaboration and networking amongst Catholic Media Institutions hence Catholic departments under his directorate should also be available to support their own media institutions.
Fr. Andrew Kaufa, the National Social Communications Secretary said apart from enhancing collaboration and networking amongst Catholic media houses, the workshop was also aimed at finding ways on how the national communications office, media houses and the association of Catholic journalists in Malawi can work together.
“Already as the national office, we have had meetings with diocesan communication secretaries and this time around, we thought of bringing media directors alone, since these groups have different issues that ought to be handled separately as well,” he said.
Fr. Kaufa said soon his office will be meeting the Association of Catholic Journalists (ACJ) Executive Committee in Salima before meeting all Catholic Journalists, Producers and Editors in Malawi for an annual general conference.
During the workshop, Secretary General for the Episcopal Conference of Malawi, Fr. Henry Saindi who is also the former Director for Radio Maria Malawi communicated three issues that the Bishops resolved during their plenary early this year.
He said the Bishops would like to see complementarity among Catholic media houses,promote the identity of the Church and defined the role of Catholic media.
“At least the Bishops would like to see Catholic media houses complementing each other by supporting each other like sharing programs, have joint transmission of Outside Broadcasting among others. On keeping the identity of the Church, the Bishops wants us to reflect on the Catholicity of our publications and programming, “he said.
According to Fr. Saindi, the Bishops also defined the Catholic Media as the one the one that supports the mission of the Church in Malawi.
For his part,Fr. Joseph Kimu,Director of Radio Maria Malawi commended ECM for organizing the workshop saying it will go a long way in meeting the objective of Church in evangelizing the gospel.
“This workshop will help us work as one and not as competitors.We need to collaborate really after all we command the listernership in the country,”said Fr. Kimu.
Among the participants to the workshop were a Sister Luisa (Chief Editor,Montfort Media),Fr. Gamba (Manager,Montfort Media),Fr. Mpina (Director of Programs,Luntha Television),Fr. Robert Songa (Director,Tuntufye FM),Fr. Gabriel Jana (Radio Alinafe),Fr. Eugine Ngoma (Radio Tigabane) and Erick Ning’ang’a (General Manager,Likuni Press).