"Our mission is to give a voice to working journalists and represent their interests in newsrooms across the country, and a platform to talk to each other," Michael Schmidt, ProJourn's newly elected acting administrative secretary, told Bizcommunity.com.
The launch took place on Saturday, 13 March 2010, in Newtown in Johannesburg, and was attended by a number of SA media's prominent figures, including press ombudsman Joe Thloloe, Raymond Louw, Jane Duncan and Guy Berger of Rhodes University, Wits Journalism School's Prof Anton Harber and Sowetan editor Fikile Ntsikelelo-Moya.
"The launch of ProJourn is a very significant event not only for the media, but for the country as a whole because we will not only be looking after ourselves but we will also ensure that the broader society's access to information is not undermined," ProJourn's newly elected secretary-general Samantha Perry said.
In a country where outspoken journalists are often seen as 'counter-revolutionaries' and 'right-wingers' - which makes them feel like strangers in their own land - many media practitioners will now begin to feel a sense of belonging… Now they have a 'roof' to protect them against abuse of power and the malice of enemies of truth.
"We will lobby government, private sector and other spheres of the media industry, including media bosses - that is another part of our mission," Schmidt pointed out.
A constitution that calls for the continuous freedom of gathering of information and free speech was adopted on Saturday, Perry said.
ProJourn's constitution also calls for the promotion of ethical and balanced reporting among members, as well as the protection of working journalists. Furthermore, Schmidt told Bizcommunity.com that considerable efforts will be made to affiliate ProJourn to global media lobby organisations, such as the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the Southern African Journalists' Association (SAJA), among others.
An IFJ's international gathering is due to take place in Marrakech, Morocco, in two weeks' time, but it is highly unlikely that ProJourn delegates will attend at such short notice.
SAJA President Foster Dongozi said while several trade unions do represent journalists' interests, none represent their professional concerns directly.
Louw, ProJourn's oversight board patron, said the collapse of SA Union of Journalists was tragic, and that is why it was absolutely essential to have such an organisation to represent journalists and to continue the fight to represent press freedom in the country.
Thloloe said ProJourn would give working journalists a say on issues, as opposed to editors whose interests are represented through the SA National Editors' Forum (SANEF). It is believed that ProJourn will get one of the two seats currently held by SANEF in the Press Council.
Newly elected acting treasurer Beauregard Tromp and his colleagues Schmidt and Perry have been tasked to take the association forward.
The first order of business will be to arrange a vote to permanently fill the two acting posts, six sectoral representative posts - radio, TV, newspapers, magazines, wire services and new media - and an associate member post on the organisation's secretariat. The association's final constitution and membership application forms will be made available on the www.projourn.org.za website today, Monday 15 March.
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