The
President of the Sports Journalists’ Association of The Gambia (SJAG), Musa
Sise, is currently in the South Korean city of Seoul for the 80th Congress of
the Association of International Press Sport (AIPS).
During
this congress, delegates representing national sports associations will be
electing a new president and executive that will steer the affairs of the AIPS
for the next four years.
More
than 200 sports journalists, delegates and guests from over 100 countries are
in attendance at the annual global summit of sports journalism.
In
his opening speech, AIPS president Gianni Merlo stressed that the congress
comes at a time when journalism is going through a difficult time with online
journalism affecting newspaper, radio and TV, amid corruption and doping
scandals affecting sport itself.
“We
see self-interest in news coverage; some clubs refuse accreditations of
journalists just because they criticize them. With doping issues, credibility
is at stake. Corruption has existed in the world of sports since long time and
doping became a cancer beginning 1980s. We hope that in 2017 we will fight more
to defend our rights and freedom of expression,” Merlo said.
The
AIPS president showed no sympathy towards those who could be caught doing
wrong. “The good news is that we are optimistic because we believe in the
professionalism of our colleagues around the world. There will be no space
among us for corruption, and we find someone corrupted he will be kicked out
and excluded, there will be no mercy.”
In
recent months, South Korea has seen the arrest of its ousted former president,
received threats from a nuclear-armed neighbour amid fears of “imminent war”
with North Korea.
“Some
of you were worried about coming here due to the global political situation,
but here we are holding our congress in great conditions,” Merlo concluded.
