By Gideon Nma Scott, Jr.
The day was quiet; the passing morning breeze whispered in the ears of the nearby trees waving their branches in unison from left to right. They stood in a single file like old soldiers who had just arrived from the frontline.
The smiling sun stood above them and listened patiently to the Atlantic Ocean which was in conversation with a group of palava huts sitting on the grey sand of the Silver Beach in Margibi County.
Their conversation was soon interrupted by a group of journalists who had gone for a retreat intended to rethink and rebrand the image of their institution after its 33 years on the newsstand.
“All work without play makes Nimely a dull boy,” their leader, who tried to localize the old Western adage said in a welcome remark, informing them that their two-day stay would focus on both work and play.
“This is a retreat and not a workshop. Even though we have invited several persons to talk to us, we will direct most of the attention to how we all can support each other to strengthen our collective output as journalists and our institution,” the Managing Editor told her colleagues.
Madam Winnie Saywah-Jimmy encouraged her staff to see the retreat as an opportunity to share knowledge and voice out some of those challenges that are or could impede their progress on the job.
“We are a family of professionals who are working and sharing the same space, so it will be in our personal and collective interests to use this retreat to speak and trash out those things that stand between us and our job, and find a way to resolve them,” Saywah-Jimmy told her staff.
While paying tributes to both the founding Managing Editor, T. Max Teah, who died 14 months after the paper was founded, and Philip N. Wesseh, whom she described as her father, mentor, and friend, she lauded the Inquirer’s Board of Administrators for the confidence reposed in her and their unwavering support to her and the staff at the paper, noting, “Teah and Wesseh, and all those on whose sweat, knowledge, and expertise this paper was founded, will be disappointed if we do not keep the commitment. I say hats off to our Board of Administrators for their continued support to us and promise to do our best to keep the commitment.”
“This is the first of its kind in our 33 years of existence, that we, as an institution, gather at a retreat to discuss, share knowledge, and work on a strategic plan. For this, I am proud to preside over it, and call on all of us to make the best of this occasion,” Jimmy said.
The Executive Director of Women in Development (WimDev), Siatta Scott Johnson, thanked the Inquirer boss for building the capacity of her staff, noting that no knowledge is a waste.
“I am proud that the Inquirer will see the need to organize such a retreat for her staff without any outside support. I can’t remember any media institution doing such for their people. This is awesome and I must thank you, Winnie, for being so thoughtful. I think that you have set the stage for others to dance on,” Scott Johnson said.
She observed, “If all media houses were keeping their people abreast with present day information on their profession, many of the missteps in the media would be kept at a minimum. We have all these media problems because anyone, without the required journalistic training, can just pick a recorder or pen and paper and say he or she is a journalist. So, I think that if all media managers would follow suit and keep their staff updated on the ethics and requirements of our profession, we will have a media space that will work for the people and not be in the pocket of the highest bidder.”
For him, the lone field correspondent, Solomon Gaye, the retreat came at a time when the country is in dire need of professional and credible media institutions to fill the gap of poor and ethical journalism in the country.
He thanked Madam Saywah-Jimmy for the retreat and promised to do more on the job.
“This is the only thing I love and know how to do. I will double my efforts to report more on the issues of the community than running behind politicians,” he pledged.
