The management of The Inquirer Newspaper will today begin a two-day staff retreat intended to draft a two-year strategic plan and refresh its editorial team on basic reporting skills as well as the paper’ policy.
As it is often said that ‘all work without play makes Jack a dull boy,’ so it has been with the Inquirer Newspaper as they began the celebration of their 33rd anniversary on January 14, 2024.
To climax the 33rd anniversary celebrations which began with thanksgiving service on January 14, 2024, the two-day retreat to be held outside Monrovia on February 2-3, 2024, will be facilitated by some of Liberia’s renowned journalists and media workers, including Frank Sainworla, Maureen Sieh, Sarweh George Stewart, and Hassan Kaiwu and as well honor its personalities, among others.
As this year’s theme: ‘Remembering our Founding Fathers, Keeping the Legacy,’ the paper has remained strong on the Liberian newsstand while serving the Liberian people and the retreat will focus on how the paper intends to uphold the legacy of its founding fathers in a media community that is so challenged with some journalists who are incompetent, inciteful, belly-driven, and at most with those trading fake news for a few dollars including journalists recruitment process.
“These are some of the issues we will be working on as an institution; how to adjust ourselves to remain credible, professional, and hearing all sides of the story before we consider it a news story worthy of showing face on our paper. Like we said, we don’t want to let the dreams of our founding fathers and staff die in the hands of some insincere, corrupt, unprofessional, and unethical journalists; that is why we are trying to reemphasize and reinforce the ABC principle (accountable, balanced and credible) of the media to our staff,” the Inquirer boss noted.
“As we are celebrating, we are working; it is called, ‘work while playing’ and my staff have been committed to ensuring that we were not carried away with the celebration, and put in all their time to execute their duties with much professionalism, integrity, and credibility. I cannot take all the credit; it is the staff that we should applaud for upholding the legacy and I thank God for sending them the way of The Inquirer. I must admit that I have one of the best teams in the Liberian media,” she bragged.
According to Madam C. Winnie Saywah-Jimmy, over the two days of intensive training and leisure, the participants will be drilled in some basic journalistic skills such as Content Gathering and Reporting (What is news), Who are the Newsmakers? (Where to find the news), Critical Writing and Critiquing the news, Reporters-Editors Relations, and Basic Administrative Guidelines and Principles and reporters-editors attitude towards the job.
Madam Jimmy, who described the retreat as a training for the Inquirer staff, said, “I believe that after the retreat, we will come back to job refreshed with an opened mind to continue with what we how to do best,” the Inquirer boss concluded.
Founded on January 15, 1991, the Inquirer paper is the first media institution to set foot on the soil in the midst of a 14-year civil war that claimed the lives of more than 250,000 persons, injured and amputated a lot more, while others were internally displaced and some sought refuge in other countries; and also destroyed major infrastructures and institutions across the country.
Meanwhile, the paper’s Managing Editor has also rained praises on two interns who were among recent graduates of the United Methodist University (UMU) for bagging Bachelor of Science Degrees in Mass Communication.
She said Laurina Lormia and Linus B. Flomo, who were seconded to The Inquirer to do their internship, exhibited their willingness to learn and accept correction while serving as interns at her institution.
“I feel proud that two of my interns have graduated from the UMU in flying colors. It wasn’t an easy task, but they were resolved to learn and I am proud of them,” the excited Managing Editor observed.
“During their internship, Laurina and Linus worked diligently and contributed immensely to the paper by covering and sending stories to our editorial department for publication, and I must admit, not much was done to their work as they had already adjusted themselves to the Inquirer style of writing,” Madam Saywah-Jimmy said.
Laurina and Linus joined the Inquirer family in November of 2023 as interns, following a special appeal from the Chairman of the Department of Communication, David Dahn, to help mold his students and prepare them to meet future challenges in their career path.
In a communication to the paper, Dahn said, “If we don’t prepare them well to meet future obligations with professionalism, ethics, and integrity, we have not only let them down, but we have failed ourselves and destroyed their future,” and called on The Inquirer’s Managing Editor and the editorial team not to let sympathy to exceed their interest while working with the interns.
“I am humbled to recommend Laurina Lormia and Linus B. Flomo for internship at your institution, and call on you to use all academic and administrative measures to ensure that they perform according to the standards of your institution and adhere to the principles of professional journalism. I count on you in helping to mold the career paths of these students. I would be glad were you to submit a performance report, including unedited and edited news stories, to form part of their grading here at the university,” Chairman Dahn said in a communication to the ME.
