Yeama Thompson

Yeama Thompson is a Sierra Leonean media development professional who rose through the ranks from a cub-reporter at the Sierra Leone Daily Mail to an Editor of The Chronicle newspaper in war time Sierra Leone. During that period she also conceptualised and produced community radio programs for women and children.

During the 2011 Liberian General Elections, as senior trainer for Journalists for Human Rights (JHR), Yeama travelled extensively in Liberia, working with community radio and Monrovia-based journalists to foster a rights media approach to reporting. She conducted country-wide workshops as well as seminars and editors and owners’ forums designed to engage both senior members of the Liberian media sector and policymakers on public discussion of major issues of concern to Liberian citizens through that time. As an IREX consultant in Liberia, she also led gender sensitive reporting training for Liberian journalists.

Her desire to contribute to the empowerment of the marginalised, underprivileged and the less abled from different works of life motivated her to return home in March 2012. As Country Director of Journalists for Human Rights in Sierra Leone where she served from 2012 to 2014, she conceptualised and implemented a human rights reporting strategy during the 2012 elections which contributed to a peaceful elections. She also work closely with the Women in the Media Sierra Leone (WIMSAL) and with support from the BBC Media Action and Journalists for Human Rights launched a leadership training initiative for media executives, which has in turn contributed to the development of a strategic action plan for female Sierra Leonean journalists from 2013 to 2015.

Yeama is the co founder and current Executive Director of the Initiatives for Media Development, Owner of the Spectrum Newspaper and board member of the Innovations for Governance Reform in Sierra Leone. She is now serving as Communication Strategist Consultant with the Open Government Partnership in Sierra Leone.

Yeama is married with two children, Mercy and Livingstone.