Emilly Maractho is new ACME board chair

CAREER | Media and development studies scholar Emilly Maractho has become the third successive woman to head the board of the African Centre for Media Excellence (ACME).

Maractho, the director of Africa Policy Centre at Uganda Christian University, has been a member of the ACME board since 2021.

“We are delighted to welcome Dr Maractho as the new Chair of our Board," ACME’s executive director George Lugalambi said.

"Her extensive experience in media development, coupled with her distinguished academic career, makes her ideally suited to lead ACME in the years to come.”

Maractho succeeds Ms Susan Nsibirwa who resigned to take over as Nation Media Group Uganda managing director last December.

Completing the women luminaries at the nonprofit organisation that works curate excellence in journalism and mass communication in Africa is the founding board chair, Prof Monica Chibita.

ACME said Maractho, who holds a doctorate in cultural and media studies, brings a distinguished record of scholarship and media development expertise to this role.

Maractho, 45, was born in Nebbi District in a humble family where so much was so uncertain that even her own name carried a bunch of meanings.

Where one sees Maractho as literally translating into "the bad one dies", another would see the figurative sense to it - thus, "it is the bad one that is dead so anything living is good".

In Latin, it would go to something like 'dum spiro spero' (while I live, I hope).

It only made sense that Emilly had another name to balance her life as she hopped from one school to another and Comfort was really apt for her. It [Comfort] fluffed between Emilly and Maractho with the grace of a butterfly, taking her places.

When she thought her passion for writing and studying journalism was gone, the development studies course she had reluctantly opted for because it was the cheapest her family could afford turned out to have been a divine grace.

She has not been jobless since graduating from Makerere University in 2003. And from hopping schools, she has hopped academia, tucking under her belt two masters and a PhD to boot.

Among other academic positions, she is Associate Professor of Media and Development at the Uganda Christian University’s School of Journalism, Media and Communication.

ACME said Maractho’s dedication to media development is evidenced by her active participation on industry boards and in journalist capacity building initiatives.

The African Centre for Media Excellence (ACME) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Emilly Maractho as the new Chair of its Board of Directors.

The announcement ➡️ https://t.co/Cj6ldXoBda pic.twitter.com/V1ib5OTvyG

— ACME Africa (@ACME_Africa) May 7, 2024

She serves on the boards of National Media Group Uganda (as Chair of the Editorial Committee) and the Uganda Media Women’s Association (as vice chairperson).

"Our board and staff have full confidence that under her leadership," ACME said,  "the organisation will continue to make significant strides in promoting media excellence and advancing high-quality journalism across Africa."

Last year, Ms Diana Angwech and Ms Barbara Among were appointed to ACME’s board.

Ms Angwech is a lawyer and former Vice-President of the Uganda Law Society, while Ms Among, a seasoned journalist, is a corporate communications professional and ACME subscriber since it was founded in 2009.

Other members of ACME’s Board of Directors are Mr Robby Muhumuza, communications and management consultant; Mr Paul Busharizi, media consultant; and Dr Arthur Bainomugisha, executive director of Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment.

Others are Wairagala Wakabi, executive director of Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA), and Mr Tabu Butagira, managing editor of Nation Media Group Uganda.