Members of the Cameroon Association of English speaking journalists, CAMASEJ have been encouraged to be story tellers than mere reporters of events.

The call was sounded out by journalism experts during a symposium held in Yaounde on Friday May 3 as part of activities marking the World Press Freedom Day.

Organised by the Yaounde chapter of Camasej, the symposium held under the theme “How to go beyond the event and how to self-brand” and gave the platform for experts to school the journalists on how to go beyond the news to unearth untold stories that could shape the society.

Speaking on the theme, Eugene Nforngwa, international freelance journalist challenged his fellow colleagues to get out of their reporter’s mind set and go beneath the layer in every event so as to come up with an outstanding script.

Disclosing some tips that would help achieve this, the freelance journalist talked about experiencing the story in order to render it in a better way and asking the right questions, “Try to ask the question no one wants to answer and a bigger story will emerge,” he said.

Conccerning self-branding, retired journalist and  diplomat Peter Ngu Tayong encouraged the journalists to know their strengths and weaknesses and work on them, dream big and have bold and compelling visions in order to be amongst the best.

The President of the Camasej- Yaounde chapter Jude Viban thanked the panelists for their insightful presentations and urged his fellow colleagues to put in practice what they must have learnt so as to take their career and the profession a step further.

He said the symposium is just one of activities which the association is organising as more activities have been planned for the months ahead to help empower journalists for a better practice on the way to empowering a free press in Cameroon.

This year’s World Press Freedom Day was observed in Cameroon under the theme “Media for democracy, journalism and elections in times of disinformation.”