The Federation of African Journalists (FAJ), the pan-African organisation that represents journalists in 44 African countries, has drawn the attention of its members, the trade union movement and the football community, to the growing trend of lobbying by national interests in the Gulf, targeting journalist unions in Africa from outside the continent with the aim of getting them to speak about labour rights issues during preparations for the 2022 FIFA World Cup due to be hosted by Qatar.
A statement by the president, Comrade Sadiq Ibrahim Ahmed said FAJ is troubled by the targeted attempts by state actors to entice some of our African affiliates to take positions on the organisation of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, which is outside our direct mandate.
“The federation wishes to state that these attempts to manipulate journalists are totally misplaced and represent a dangerous attempt to involve African journalists in the political disputes in the Gulf.
“Journalists need to be c onscious of the risk of getting lured into fighting other peoples’ wars. Getting involved in Gulf politics threatens to divert us from pressing issues such as safety for journalists and the fight for freedom of expression, which should be the concern of anybody who wishes African journalism well,” Ahmed said.
He said as a continental body representing journalists and other media workers through affiliated journalist trade unions, “the FAJ welcomes the progress made as a result of the campaigning by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) Building Workers’ Power initiative and others to bring about labour reforms in Qatar. Important reforms to Qatar’s labour laws have been made and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) through its supervisory mechanisms and technical cooperation is playing a vital role.
“Progress is real and where there are problems, mechanisms now exist to resolve them. Legitimate concerns of human rights organisations should not be clouded by state intervention.”
“FAJ is fully aligned to the position of the ITUC which has yielded historic and progressive legal reforms in Qatar with regard to the protection of migrant workers and labour rights. The focus should be on bringing the benefits of those reforms to all workers in the country and bringing similar reforms to the whole Gulf region.
“We warn our affiliates and the African trade union organisations to resist statesponsored attempts to swing them to positions contrary to the efforts, which we are convinced are not motivated by any genuine concerns for labour rights or the principles we stand for” stressed the leader of pan-African journalists’ federation.
“The federation unequivocally rejects any attempt to use African journalists as political footballs. Legitimate enquiry and criticism are always justified, but when geopolitics is at play, great care needs to be taken to avoid manipulation.
“Similarly, FAJ advises the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to be very careful not to advance such unholy engagements whose sole purpose is to misdirect the energy of African countries and their national football associations from the priorities of football.
“For a long time, some African countries have suffered instability because Gulf countries have taken their rivalry beyond their national borders as they jostle for influence. The time for manipulation of African audiences is long over and journalism should not allow itself to be used as a vehicle for promoting unprincipled positions,” he said.
