On this day, we celebrate the achievements of hardworking members of the sporting media. We encourage sports journalists to strive for excellence in their work and to set an example to the world – not only to the world of sport but to the world at large.
As we celebrate the day under a global pandemic, which has left many journalists including freelancers, jobless, and many others taking a pay cut to stay afloat, we hope the Covid-19 will end soon, so that we will get back to doing what we love.
The lives of the sports journalists and sports itself will never be the same again.
Our new life devoid of sports and its reporting has been a beating. Many took a dive in human and social interest to the actual sporting activities. And beneath it all, we are slowly and undoubtedly being changed, in ways we cannot fully realize, comprehend and detect.
We are being disconnected, like it or not and we won’t know what that truly means for quite some time.
In the absence of on-the-field activities, journalists must be innovative in their reporting to inform the audience.
We will not emerge from this unchanged. Our various leagues battered in some form or the other and we won’t want to acknowledge that everything going forward will be different. And right now, we don’t even know when or where forward begins.
All sports and sporting activities have been placed in deep hibernation, The Olympics of all events, the Euro’s gone, punctuated sporting activities, World and Africa cup qualifiers and most recently the Africa Nations cup finals has become the most recent victim of the all mighty Covid 19 pandemic.
Sports, under the pandemic, have not been the same for administrators, athletes, fans and journalists alike.
As we continue to gauge the impact of the Covid 19 pandemic on society at large, we are urging media houses to priorities the well-being of their staff and for those laid-off, to be paid their entitlements.
As an association, the advent of the pandemic has interrupted most of the planned activities for 2020, which include the flagship annual National Sports Awards and capacity building programs for our members.
The SJAG executive shares with our members the struggle faced under the Covid-19 pandemic.
As a reminder, our games will come back. Our lives and sports will continue. But in the meantime, our emotions and senses and memories are being belted badly.
We urge sports journalists to adhere to the preventive guidelines against the virus given by the Health Expert as we wish to come back stronger and healthier.
Happy International Sports Journalist day!
SJAG, Executive