African journalists in the United States are struggling to bring African news to communities of African descent in America while also sharing their experiences in the West with communities in their homeland. Anthony Ogbo is the managing editor of the International Guardian newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois. He told VOA English to Africa reporter Francois Nsengiyumva about the paper’s goal.
“We bridge the gap between Africans in the Diaspora, then the Africans at home and we cover every available news related to those communities.”
He explained how being stationed in the United States affects the publication.
“We have a website called Gambiannews.us. We also have all our publications marked out…Being in a society where the law allows us to express our opinions we can practice journalism here without fear of repercussions or intimidation and we are in the best position to address issues in Africa because we can do it freely here. We are protected by the law and the amendments.”
Ogbo said that the newspaper receives feedback through various forms.
“We have a lot of feedback through emails; we have feedback through phone calls; we have a lot of commendations from the Africans back in Africa due to the measure of the issues that we address. We address very strong issues that have been sending the continent backwards.”
He says, in particular, International Guardian takes advantage of conducting business in a nation “where law and order exists so we can…express our opinion and address critical issues…”
The managing editor spoke about the challenges the paper has encountered.
“Challenges in two ways: one, trying to get our paper to be politically conscience…the second part of our challenge is support of our people….But we’ve been in business for eight years and we take it one day at a time.”
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