The UK Branch:

The executive committee of the UK branch of the CJA consists of senior journalists in the UK.

Rita Payne (Chair)

Cheryl Dorall (Secretary)

Martin Lumb (Treasurer) - A freelance journalist, formerly a correspondent and editor with the BBC World Service. Martin has reported widely from southern Africa and south Asia, and began his international career on the Daily Nation in Kenya. He now specialises in media issues for international organisations and has worked as a communications consultant for the United Nations.

Other members (in alphabetical order):

Syed Belal Ahmed

Kailash Budhwar

Henry Gombya - A British-Ugandan journalist, currently managing editor of online magazine The London Evening Post. Henry has worked as a correspondent for the Daily Nation, The Standard and the former Kenya Times in Nairobi and as news editor of the Uganda Star and Shield Publications in Kampala. He has written for Africa Now, African Concord, New African, and was Kampala correspondent for BBC programme ‘Focus On Africa’ from 1983 to 1987. He has been a regular contributor to Voice of America programme ‘Straight Talk’, contributed to Radio France International, and founded and edited online newspaper ‘Str8talk Chronicle’.

Will Henley – A freelance journalist, communications consultant and member of the International CJA Executive Committee. He was deputy editor and head of digital at Global Financial Strategy and has written for Building Design, Money Marketing, Times Online, the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, and The Standard (Kenya), among others. He has also worked for the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Commonwealth Foundation and UNDP, as well as for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe/UNMIK in Kosovo and Macedonia. He began his working life as a research assistant in the Ministerial Briefing Unit of the UK Home Office for then Secretary-of-State Rt. Hon. David Blunkett MP.

Derek Ingram

Syed Nahas Pasha - One of the most respected British-Bangladeshi journalists in the UK and the editor in chief of the Weekly Janomot, a Bangla newspaper established in 1969. Syed is also editor in chief of restaurant magazine Curry Life and UK bureau chief of the largest Bangladeshi online news agency, bdnews24.com. He is one of the founding members and former general secretary of the London Bangla Press Club, which acts as a voice for British Bangladeshi journalists, and has worked with government bodies including the Home Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Mike Popham

David Spark

Kaye Whiteman - A writer, journalist, author and media consultant who for 17 years was editor and general manager of West Africa magazine. Kaye still writes mainly on African affairs. He worked in the Information Directorate of the European Commission, dealing with development issues, for much of the 1970s, and in 1999-2000 was director of information at the Commonwealth Secretariat. He has also served as editorial adviser at Business Day in Lagos, Nigeria, for which he still writes. He has a substantial body of published articles, academic papers and chapters in books. Kaye is also a research associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and vice chairman of the Africa Centre Council of Management.