NAIROBI, Kenya, 01 November 2022 -/African Media Agency(AMA)/- The specialist news agency, bird, announced Ndu Okoh as its new Editor-in-Chief.
Okoh’s role will oversee all aspects of the agency’s editorial output and will see her work with more than 80 contributing journalists across Africa.
The award-winning Nigerian journalist has held positions in top regional and global news and media houses including Agence France Presse, The Nation Media Group and The Standard Group.
Okoh brings a wealth of experience from a varied background that spans broadcast journalism, corporate communications, research and business development.
“The opportunity to help set the editorial agenda and reframe how the world sees Africa is one I embrace with arms wide open,” commented Okoh.
“We will continue to find and tell the untold business, innovation, tech, human interest, arts and culture stories that abound on the continent. These are the stories that provide a balanced perspective of Africa by Africans and shift the focus away from the persistent frames of conflict, corruption, poverty and disease that have plagued news reporting on the continent. I know that the present and future is Africa, and bird is flying the vision high,” Okoh said.
Moky Makura, executive director of Africa No Filter, bird’s main funder, said she was thrilled with Okoh’s appointment. “Ndu brings a deep understanding of the media ecosystem to the team and a passion for redefining African news which is critical to this role at bird,” Makura said.
Makura added: “Ndu will lead an editorial team that brings an important and different view of Africa to African newsrooms. Through bird, we’re able to support newsrooms by providing a range of stories that better represent the continent and reflect its progress, at a time when newsroom budgets are under intense pressure. bird offers a different – and crucially important – picture of Africa to that provided by international news agencies, on whom many African newsrooms rely, not only for international but also for African content.”
The specialist news agency, which provides free feature content, data-driven stories, pictures, graphics and news video, has over 70 subscriber clients across Africa and content contributors in 36 countries. Founded and funded by Africa No Filter in 2021, the agency works to change the narrative on and in Africa by providing content to news broadcasters, publishers and platforms.
Inquiries:Lerato@africanofilter.org
About Africa No Filter:
Africa No Filter is a donor collaborative working to shift stereotypical and harmful narratives within and about Africa. Through research, grant-making, community building and advocacy, our objective is to build the field of narrative change-makers by supporting storytellers, investing in media platforms, and driving disruption campaigns. The donor collaborative is funded by Ford Foundation, Bloomberg, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Luminate, Open Society Foundations, Comic Relief, the Hilton Foundation, the British Council and Hewlett Foundation.
About bird:
bird produces multimedia stories designed for an African, mobile-first audience, for distribution to Africa’s leading digital news platforms. Content is distributed for free and supports journalists across Africa by offering paid work and training. Media outlets interested in publishing bird content can contact tom@africanofilter.org.
