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.

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