The Suriname Association of Journalists (SVJ) has implemented its first ever accreditation badges to professional journalists in the Dutch-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country that it says is ‘a huge step for Surinamese journalism’.
SVJ president, Naomi Hoever said that the initiative is intended to help protect and maintain journalistic standards, especially at a time when press freedom and trust in the media are under pressure.
‘This step is in line with that. It shows that we, as a profession, are taking responsibility,’ she told the ceremony on Sunday night.
‘In the past, there was less proliferation. However, in recent years, we’ve seen a lot of people consider themselves journalists, so as an association, we had to draw the line somewhere,’ Hoever said, noting that although the SVJ has been in existence for 35 years, this is the first time a formal accreditation system has been introduced.
The accreditation badges are the result of more than three and a half months of intensive work by the Accreditation Preparatory Committee, and at the inaugural phase only members of the SVJ were accredited.
‘The profession is bound by rules and standards that have been agreed upon worldwide. With this accreditation, we give professional journalists a seal of approval that makes it clear: these people work according to those rules,’ Hoever said.
‘When something goes wrong, the entire profession gets a bad name, while sometimes it’s just people who aren’t journalists, but just happen to be holding a microphone’ she said, noting that with the accreditation system, the SVJ therefore explicitly wants to ‘separate the wheat from the chaff.’
The accreditation is primarily aimed at members of the SVJ with a key criterion being that journalism must be the primary profession.
‘You can’t have a side job where journalism is a side issue. It has to be your primary source of income,’ Hoever said, describing the introduction of accreditation as ‘a huge step for Surinamese journalism’.
President of the Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM), Harvey Panka, who is also a SVJ member, said the ‘SVJ is one of many ACM members, but organizations that last 35 years are not often seen,.
‘We see organizations come and go. The fact that the SVJ has survived through it all deserves respect,’ he said, praising the association’s role in informing society and continuing to train journalists.