Nile Media Network Rwanda Chapter [NMN] yesterday elected a new executive council that will oversee the operations of the network. The election of the new office bearers for the body charged with informing the public about several activities along River Nile, took place at Alpha Palace Hotel in Remera, a Kigali City suburb. The former coordinator of NMN, Edwin Musoni of The New Times, was elected chairman by journalists from various local media houses, beating the outgoing president, Susan Kayitesi of RIMEG. Gabby Niyonzima a reporter with Izuba news paper, a sister paper to The New Times replaced Musoni as coordinator. “We are setting a deadline for May next year to have registered this organisation,” Musoni told journalists as what he hopes to achieve in his new mandate. NMN is a product of Confidence Building and Stakeholder Involvement [CBSI] a project of the Nile Basin Initiative. [NBI]Musoni stressed to journalists that NMN was a voluntary initiative meant for the good of the civil society. “We are not here to make money but to work on behalf of the society. We should work for our country,” he said. He also announced a regional competition that requires excellent reporting on Nile basin issues and will also be an encouragement to the coverage of environmental issues. NMN was formed in 2005 as a result of a Regional Media workshop in Cairo, Egypt under the theme, “Children of the same river.” The Nile is shared by 10 countries that include Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo [DRC], Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. According to the initiative, journalists from the various States are obligated to follow up on issues about the Nile and inform their societies. The media network’s prime objective is to sensitise the population where the Nile passes about the benefits of cooperation in utilising the shared resources of the River Nile. Ends
