Sak 12: Orienteringsak til LS Brev fra East African Journalist Association til NJs landsstyre, med svarbrev fra Elin.
Norsk Journalistlag, Postboks 8793 Youngstorget, 0028 Oslo Side 2
East African Journalist Association President Dr Muheldin Ahmed Idris - Titawi Oslo, 16.08.2012 Norsk Journalistlag, Postboks 8793 Youngstorget, 0028 Oslo Side 3
Solidarity, journalism and trade unionism Dear Mr. President. Thank you for your letter to the board of executives in the Norwegian Union of Journalists (NJ). First, I will emphasize that everyone at the board has received your letter. I will, as president for the union, reply respectfully to you on behalf of the board. I am sorry to say that there obviously are a lot of misunderstandings, poor dialogue and mistrust here. Your letter states factual errors and accusations that I regard as harsh and insulting both to our board member in the IFJ, Eva Stabell, as well as to the Norwegian Union of Journalists and to our members. Let me take this opportunity to tell you about our solidarity-work. Every member of our union pays a percentage of the membership-fee directly into a fund for solidarity for other journalists. This fund shall enable us to support struggles for journalists and free and independent journalist-unions in other parts of the world. A part of this fund has been used in Africa, others in Latin America, Russia, The Philippines and so on. We do not use this fund to try to dominate other regions or unions, but to strengthen their work for independent and quality journalism, union-building and safety for journalist. It is a small contribution from our members that makes this possible. Therefore, I strongly oppose the accusation that we use the money for other means as you sadly imply in the letter. It seems to me that there is confusion about the relationship between our union and the funding from the Norwegian government. The funding that sometimes comes from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is only based on their judgment and funding. We, as the journalist union can give input, but of course we cannot by any means be part of the decision that they make. There are four main reasons for why the Norwegian Union of Journalists wanted to reach out and help the Uganda Journalist Union. 1: We want IFJ to be as strong as possible, and we don t want IFJ to loose member unions that wish to stay within the federation. 2: The Norwegian Union (NJ) has worked together with UJU since the 1990ties, when we helped funding brave female journalist working to inform Ugandan women about their new legal rights. Therefore it felt natural to offer our support. 3: Last year, NJ worked hard together with Lucy Ekadu and Gabriel Baglo to get financial support for the first Pan-African gender conference for journalists. The money came from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs through their embassy in Uganda (the event has to be moved from Nairobi to Kampala and then to Kigali you may ask Omar Faruk to explain why). Norway s ambassador to Uganda was so satisfied with the conference and the close cooperation with Lucy Ekadu that the MFA contacted us unofficially - and asked whether we thought it would be possible to continue the cooperation and may be arrange a chain of gender conferences for journalists in the Norsk Journalistlag, Postboks 8793 Youngstorget, 0028 Oslo Side 4
years to come. It was obvious that the work Lucy did was important for the MFA and the embassy, and a very bad time for UJU to be thrown out of the IFJ. 4: As we know them, the Uganda Union fights hard and strong to support their members in their struggle for freedom of speech and against attacks from government and others. Journalists are being killed and UJU tries to fight impunity and injustice. The message that UJU was thrown out of the IFJ would weaken their fight for journalist s rights and could be used by the authorities against the union. If you permit me to ask you a question: In Norway, we are wondering why UJU s sister unions in African do not support UJU s fight to stay within the FAJ and the IFJ? In our opinion, you should be the first to reach out and give support not financial, but solidarity support. The Norwegian Union of Journalists has a strong commitment to work close with colleges from around the world, and we wish to continue to do so. My hope is that we can continue this dialogue on a more open and trustful note remembering that there are a lot of enemies out there, but that other journalist unions are not among them. We should be able to make each other stronger by working together for our common goals and for the good of the journalist profession. Respectfully, Elin Floberghagen President Norwegian Union of Journalists Norsk Journalistlag, Postboks 8793 Youngstorget, 0028 Oslo Side 5