Journalists have been called upon
to collaborate with other organizations involved in the fight against money
laundering and terrorist financing to collectively ensure that appropriate
measures are taken against the twin crimes in a more harmonized and concerted
manner.
This is part of recommendations
contained in a communiqué issued at the
end of a 2-day interactive session for media executives and journalists in West
Africa organised by the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money
Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), held from April 27 – 28 in Dakar, Senegal.
According to the
communiqué, the 30 journalists and media executives from across the 15
member states of ECOWAS who attended
the seminar, recommended that media practitioners should collaborate with organizations
like Financial Action Task Force (FATF) - the global standard-setter for
measures to combat money laundering, terrorist and proliferation financing; GIABA – an arm of ECOWAS established to
fight money laundering and terrorist financing in West Africa, and similar
organizations at national level.
The recommended collaboration will help to devise a common
direction and means to articulate a more concerted regional approach to the
fight against money laundering and financing of terrorism to put a stop to the amount
of millions of dollars being laundered in the West African sub-region annually.
It was also recommended that journalists should frequently
visit the GIABA website (www.giaba.org) and of
FATF (http://www.fatf-gafi.org) to keep
themselves abreast with ML/FT issues.
