The Minister for Cabinet Affairs, Protais Musoni, has urged media practitioners in the East African Community to utilize their role as educators to promote the development of higher education, which will in turn improve the quality of media practitioners in the region.

Musoni made the call yesterday, while addressing a media workshop organized by the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA) that attracted several media practitioners.

He pointed out that the traditional role of the media was to inform, educate and entertain and that by virtue of these functions, the media plays a key role in discovering new information that influences people’s opinions.

"We should create relationships between institutions of higher learning and media houses, so that they can empower each other through debate in order to obtain accurate facts and solutions to problems, which will help citizens and officials to make informed decisions,” Musoni said.

The Executive Secretary of IUCEA, Chacha Nyaigotti, declared that the body’s prime goal is to become an effective regional advocate and catalyst for development and management of higher education in East Africa.

"By collaborating with media bodies, learning institutions and other organs of research will enhance regional social cohesion through dissemination of knowledge,” Chacha stated.

IUCEA is a regional inter-governmental organization charged with developing collaboration for mutual benefit among EA universities.

Ends