GPU Special Awards 2020
Amie
Joof-Cole is a veteran Gambian journalist, gender and women’s rights activist,
and communication and election expert. She is the Executive Director of the
Inter-African Network for Women, Media, Gender and Development (FAMEDEV).
As freedom
of expression and press freedom advocate, she presided over the establishment
of the online Radio Alternative Voice for Gambians (also known as Radio AVG)
about a decade ago in Dakar, Senegal to give alternative voice to Gambians at a
time when voices in The Gambia were suppressed. Radio AVG provided opportunity
to young Gambian journalists in exile in Dakar to make their voices heard from
across the border, as well as develop their professional skills in broadcast
journalism.
On many
occasions, Amie Joof-Cole risked her safety and those of her family by giving
shelter to Gambian journalists who fled to Dakar for exile especially during
the last fifteen years of the former regime. She stood and spoke for those
journalists in their country of exile and across the world.
Amie
Joof-Cole spent decades mentoring and guiding journalists. Many of those
journalists went on to become accomplished media practitioners. She remains a
champion of media development and press freedom.