Emmanuel Dogbevi appointed National Coordinator for PAIR Ghana

Mr Emmanuel K. Dogbevi has been appointed the new National Coordinator for the Programme for African Investigative Reporting (PAIR) Ghana project.

Mr Dogbevi  who is the Managing Online Editor of ghanabusinessnews.com succeeds Mr. Paa Kwesi Plange whose term of office ended in September last year. He will serve for a three-year term renewable every year.

The Programme for African Investigative Reporting (PAIR) works to support and develop investigative journalism in Ghana, Benin, Togo, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso in cooperation with the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA).

The PAIR is a project of the Danish Association for Investigative Reporters (FUJ) and funded by the International Media Support (IMS) also of Denmark . The programme is currently on a pilot basis in the five West African countries of Ghana, Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast.

Ghanaian journalists and media organisations that have cases to investigate can apply for funding through PAIR to facilitate the development and publication of such stories for their media.

As National Coordinator, Mr. Dogbevi will have overall responsibility for all PAIR activities in Ghana. Acting as the official representative of PAIR, he will work in close cooperation with FUJ, IMS and the MFWA.

The programme period is September 2009 to September 2012, the IMS says.

The PAIR project is modeled on the SCOOP project which is a network for investigative journalists in East and Southeastern Europe with funding from the IMS. SCOOP was founded in 2003 and since then investigative reporters have published a number of investigative stories in media all over the region, it says on its website.

The PAIR initiative also seeks to provide funding for journalists engaged in investigative reporting in West Africa. And the NC is required to identify relevant investigations by journalists and support them with funding.

Mr. Emmanuel K. Dogbevi, a graduate of the University of Ghana has worked as a journalist for about 21 years. He started his journalism career with Step Magazine in 1990 as an editorial trainee and moved on to work with the Christian Messenger, Ghana’s oldest newspaper. He has also worked for the Independent newspaper and written for most newspapers in Ghana as a freelance journalist, as well as some foreign publications including the Government News magazine of Australia. He has worked with myjoyonline.com and Citi FM.

By Ekow Quandzie