This message from the heads of the Journalism Research and Education Section was distributed to all the section members on 27 April 2020.
Dear JRE members,
We hope this finds you and your families well in this uneasy time.
We would like to share some perceptions regarding Section and Working Groups elections this year. As you know, elections of the Section's governing body (chair and three vice-chairs) take place every four years at the Section business meeting at the IAMCR annual conference. The candidates nominate themselves in advance, their statements are posted on IAMCR website and, at the business meeting, candidates present themselves, speak about their strategies and plans, after which voting takes place.
This year, as you know, IAMCR conference is going to be an online event. This new virtual format, despite necessary, does not allow for a traditional face-to-face business meeting, with interactions and discussions that we - as a Section - are used to. On the other hand, we think that at these difficult times a lot of members could be lacking energy or disposition to deal with elections, considering all the challenges that we are facing around the world.
In this context, we suggest postponing JRE's elections which were planned for 2020 for one more one year and hold them in 2021, instead of holding online elections this year. This possibility was offered by IAMCR. In this case, chair and vice-chairs’ mandates will be extended for another year and the formal elections will take place in 2021 as planned.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to let us know.
Thank you in advance, and we wish you and your families all the best.
JRE´s team
Cláudia Lago (Chair), Oliver Hahn (Vice-Chair), Sadia Jamil (Vice-Chair) and Abiodun Salawu (Vice-Chair)