Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung@ 40 in Ghana when it hosted an international conference on the STATE OF THE MEDIA IN WEST AFRICA and the Congress of the West African Journalists Association in Accra in 1996. It was at this conference that I was elected President of WAJA, a position that enabled the GJA and its President to lead the struggle for press freedom in West Africa and share its unique experiences with other professional associations in the sub-region. Several associations emulated the GJA's example and set up press houses. The proceedings of the conference edited by Niyi Alabi and Kabral Blay­Amihere were published in both French and English and provided a useful insight into the state of press freedom in West Africa and the experiences of journalists. This account will not be complete without a special mention of a two-year training programme that the FES and the European Union organized for the many journalists on the new media in Ghana who had not had formal training in schools of journalism. Organised after working hours, this programme introduced to these journalists basics in journalism like news writing, features writing and the GJA's code of ethics. The writing skills of many of these journalists improved considerably. Even those journalists who had had some formal education broadened both their professional and intellectual horizons after participating in the programme. By also sponsoring some journalists over the years to undertake professional visits to Germany, the FES has helped to expose Ghanaian journalists to the outside world. What has been remarkable about the partnership between the GJA and the FES is that the FES has in the last two decades in particular always been on hand to support programmes of the GJA. The FES for instance stepped in when funding for the GJA's off-record programme-MEDIA ENCOUNTER by the Ashanti Goldfields Company stopped. This was a programme that created the platform for public figures to speak on fundamental issues in a relaxed off-the record atmosphere. Through funding by FES, the programme was relaunched under the name“Media Dialogues” and has since served public discourse very well. 40