Young Gambian journalists have been urged to upgrade themselves and always keep themselves abreast with current issues, to enable them report accurately. This will ensure that journalists have well-established fact in all the stories they prepare for publishing.

Lawyer Nguie Mboob-Janneh, a member of the Female Lawyers Association of The Gambia (FLAG), and new board member of the Young Journalists Association of The Gambia (YJAG), also told journalists last Thursday at the Gambia Press Union (GPU), during the inauguration of the Young Journalists Association of The Gambia (YJAG) new board of advisers that they must ensure that they understand the laws that governthe journalism profession, for them to become responsible journalists.

Madam Mboob-Janneh told the journalists that they would be well respected when they report responsibly and that they will be hardly challenged in their profession. Journalists play an integral role in keeping people accountable, and in bringing to the fore stories that would most readily be swept under the rug.

“Journalists are trained to be objective, to analyse, dissect, probe, and report on facts. To give people something to chew on, to spur discussion and to enable change. They are supposed to be non-partisan, not bring their personal biases into their professional lives.

Weed out the sensation and focus on what matters. Look for the story, not make one up. Journalists are supposed to be ethical, grounded as well as gritty and real. In my little career I have discovered most of this to be true,” the FLAG official remarked.

Madam Mboob-Janneh went on to note thatjournalism is a very important profession andreminded the members of YJAG that they are to tell the people what is happening. “You inform and educate the general public,” she added.

She also reminded them that as young journalists, they should not be in any hurry to be the first to report on issues or events, but that what they should be thinking of is training. “Read extensively and know what all the profession is about,” she further advised.

She pointed that it is true that most of our young journalists don’t have the requisite training or knowledge to report factually; that hey just have an ‘eye for a story’ — stories that are sometimes concocted for pure business reasons, adding that when there was no story, the media made it up.

Furthert in her remarks Mboob-Janneh, said journalists must learn to know how to report right, know the laws that are associated with their profession, pointinf out that one single word of their pen on the newspaper can change somebody’s life and can even stop somebody from going to that street. “You should know what you are doing and what is right, so prepare yourselves now so that when you are ready for the society, the people will be proud to associate themselves with you,” she concluded.