Economic Commission for Africa - guyberger.ru.ac.zaguyberger.ru.ac.za/fulltext/Stream Report_ENG1 (2).pdf · SAIMED Southern African Institute for Media Entrepreneurship Development

Economic Commission for Africa

I n f o r m a t i o n a n d C o m m u n i c a t i o n S e r v i c e

Report of the Findings of the Strengthening African Media (STREAM)

Consultative Process

Economic Commission for Africa

I n f o r m a t i o n a n d C o m m u n i c a t i o n S e r v i c e

Report of the Findings of the Strengthening African Media (STREAM)

Consultative Process

Fackson Banda(Rhodes University)

m e d i a • m e d i a • m e d i a • m e d i a • m e d i a Ordering Information

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Email:[email protected] OR [email protected] download a copy from www.uneca.org

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m e d i a • m e d i a • m e d i a • m e d i a • m e d i a

Acronyms ............................................................................................................................ v

Chapter 1: Contextualization .......................................................................................... 31.1 The African context for media development .................................................................................................. 3

1.1.1 Historical precedents ................................................................................................................................ 31.1.2 Changes in the media and communications landscape: opportunities for African media

development ................................................................................................................................................ 41.1.3 Contemporary efforts at media development in Africa .................................................................... 6

1.2 Objectives of the STREAM consultative process............................................................................................ 8

Chapter 2: Methodology ................................................................................................... 92.1 Ethnographic data collection ............................................................................................................................... 92.2 Analysis and interpretation ................................................................................................................................ 112.3 Methodological problems ................................................................................................................................... 11

Chapter 3: Findings ..........................................................................................................133.1 Regional overviews .............................................................................................................................................. 13

Chapter 4: Synthesis ......................................................................................................334.1 The concept of media development ................................................................................................................ 334.2 Media regulation ................................................................................................................................................... 34

4.2.1 Supportive political environment .......................................................................................................... 354.2.2 Supportive legal environment ................................................................................................................ 354.2.3 Enabling economic environment ........................................................................................................... 354.2.4 Enhanced associational infrastructure ................................................................................................. 36

4.3 Media production ................................................................................................................................................. 364.4 Media education and training............................................................................................................................. 364.5 Towards an ‘African media development facility’? ......................................................................................... 37

Chapter 5: Priority Areas for Intervention ....................................................................39

Chapter 6: Conclusion .....................................................................................................41

References .........................................................................................................................43

Table of Contents

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Report of the Findings of the Strengthening African Media (STREAM) Consultative Process


List of TablesTable 1: Physical consultation meetings ........................................................................................................... 10Table 2: Southern Africa regional consultation: key findings ....................................................................... 14Table 3: Francophone West and Central African regional consultation: key findings ............................ 18Table 4: Anglophone West African regional consultation: key findings ..................................................... 22Table 5: Eastern African regional consultation: key findings ........................................................................ 26Table 6: North African regional consultation: key findings .......................................................................... 30

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ACCE African Council on Communication EducationAMARC World Association for Community Radio BroadcastersAMDI African Media Development InitiativeAMWIK Association of Media Women in KenyaAPRM African Peer Review MechanismAU African UnionBAZ Broadcasting Authority of ZimbabweCfA Commission for AfricaCIHRS Cairo Institute for Human Rights StudiesCSO Civil Society OrganizationDFID Department for International Development (UK)EAC East African CommunityECOWAS Economic Community of West African StatesEFJA Ethiopian Free Journalists’ AssociationFEMNET African Women’s Development and Communication NetworkGEMSA Gender and Media Southern African NetworkGFMD Global Forum for Media DevelopmentIAJ Institute for the Advancement of JournalismIBA Independent Broadcasting AuthorityICASA Independent Communications Authority of South Africa ICF Investment Climate Facility (for Africa)KBC Kenya Broadcasting CorporationMACRA Malawi Communications Regulatory AuthorityMDDA Media Development and Diversity AgencyMDGs Millennium Development GoalsMDLF Media Development Loan FundMFWA Media Foundation for West AfricaMISA Media Institute for Southern AfricaNEPAD New Partnership for Africa’s Development NUSJ National Union of Somali JournalistsNWICO New World Information and Communication OrderPANA Pan-African News AgencyPIWA Panos Institute West AfricaPRSP Poverty Reduction Strategy PaperSAEF Southern African Editors’ ForumSAIMED Southern African Institute for Media Entrepreneurship DevelopmentSAMDEF Southern African Media Development FundSAMTRAN Southern African Media Trainers’ Network

Acronyms

vi



SAQA South Africa Qualifications AgencySTREAM Strengthening African Media (consultative process)TAMWA Tanzania Media Women’s AssociationTNC Transnational CorporationUMWA Uganda Media Women’s AssociationUNECA United Nations Economic Commission for AfricaVAT Value Added TaxVOP Voice of the People (Zimbabwe)

1


This report presents the main findings of the consultative process embarked upon by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), in conjunction with key African media support institutions, to ascertain the priorities for strengthening media institutions in Africa. The consultation process provided a platform for various African media actors to articulate concerns and perspectives, identify priority issues and areas requiring support, and propose concrete initiatives and programmes towards a strengthened media sector.

African ownership is a fundamental principle underpinning the process and its outcomes. An important outcome, apart from this particular report, is a Strategic Framework for Strengthening Media in Africa that makes the case for investing in media, and provides the basis for a stakeholder conference being planned to discuss and agree on immediate as well as medium- and longer-term priorities that should attract financing.

This report is structured as follows. Chapter 1 discusses the media and communications context within which the consultation took place, noting the key historical and contemporary processes that would define, and be influenced by, the initiative. Chapter 2 outlines the methodology employed in the consulta-tion process, underscoring the ethnographic nature of the consultation as a socially embedded ‘research’ process. Chapter 3 presents the main findings of the consultation, highlighting the major issues, problems and proposals emerging out of the discussions. The analysis of the findings takes the form of regional overviews, presented in tabular form. These findings are then taken up in Chapter 4 in the form of a syn-thesized discussion, highlighting common themes and issues. Chapter 5 sets out priority areas for inter-vention. Chapter 6 concludes the report, with a summary of the key conclusions.

Introduction


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The consultative process was linked to specific developments in the media and communications sector, not least the Commission for Africa (CfA), set up in 2004 by British Prime Minister Tony Blair1. It would be a mistake to stop there; because the media and communications landscape in Africa has been under-going major changes, signalling the need and presenting opportunities for a concerted initiative to take advantage of such changes in favour of strengthening media institutions.

This section outlines the broader context within which the media and communications scene has changed in Africa, before isolating the specific processes leading up to the formation of a task force, under the auspices of UNECA, to drive the process of evolving an African consensus on the key issues under-pinning the agenda for media development. It also highlights some of the other initiatives underway in the general rubric of media development.

1.1 The African context for media development

1.1.1 Historical precedents

The agenda for media development has historical precedents. The promulgation of the New Information and Communication Order (NWICO), although ideologically emotive and divisive, highlighted the need for media institutions in developing countries to be sufficiently capacitated to deal with the doctrine of the ‘balanced’, as opposed to the ‘free’, flow of information across borders. For example, one of the earliest issues of the NWICO debate has assumed even greater relevance in this age of globalization: the need to control or provide sound alternatives to the giant transnational media corporations. Indeed, the ‘global reach’ of the transnationals (TNCs) has become much more extensive in the 1990s than in the early days of the NWICO debate. In connection with the TNC question, the issue of equitable sharing of communications technology for the countries of the South has become increasingly important.2

To quote Brown-Syed:

The NWICO movement began as a protest over the concentration of print and broad-cast media ownership among de facto cartels, and developed into an argument about the cultural dominance of poor nations by wealthy ones. However, even before the Soviet collapse, some NWICO proponents were beginning to suggest that the issue of news imbalance was a red herring, and that supplying developing nations with current banking and business information was more crucial…

1 Commission for Africa, 2005. Our common interest: report of the Commission for Africa. London: Commission for Africa (CfA).2 Colleen Roach, 1996. The MacBride Round Table on Communication. Available [0]: http://www.wacc.org.uk/wacc/publications/media_development/archive/1996_3/

the_macbride_round_table_on_communication. Accessed on 2007/06/18.

Chapter 1: Contextualization

4


…However, the problem of uneven world development, far from disappearing with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, remains with us…Moreover, the Third World of the 1990s finds itself with only one ideological pole toward which to turn, and with the West as the major viable source of economic assistance. Politics aside, it would seem that the basic NWICO assumption is that plenty of information is concomitant to, and predeterminate of economic prosperity, remains at least arguable.

In hindsight, it appears that the East-West politicization of the NWICO debate merely served to distract attention from deep seated problems which persist and are likely to grow more pernicious in the short term.3

Indeed, the very establishment by the Organization of African Unity, renamed African Union (AU) or the Pan-African News Agency (PANA) in 1979, regardless of the ideological-political intentions4 of the consti-tuting States, were ample evidence of Africa’s commitment to developing the continent’s media and com-munication apparatus. NWICO was in part an attempt at building international support for the media in the developing world.

1.1.2 Changes in the media and communications landscape: op-portunities for African media development

The media and communications landscape has undergone unprecedented changes, offering opportunities for renewed energy towards media development.

The globalization of democratization

The 1990s, following the collapse of state socialism and the consolidation of capitalism worldwide, marked a dramatic intensification of public awareness of democratization. This is particularly evident in the way most African systems of government changed from authoritarian to liberal forms of democracy. This would seem to agree with the place of the media in what they call ‘the two waves of democracy’. The ‘first wave’ refers to the colonial period. In other words, some see the African-nationalist struggles for independence from colonial rule as an agenda for democratization. This initial wave was effaced soon after independence, giving way to a ‘second wave’ of post-colonialism5 that itself becomes implicated in the ‘third wave’. The ‘third wave’ – a global movement towards democratization – became a reality in most of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in the 1990s6. Indeed, some scholars refer to this process as Africa’s ‘second liberation’ to underscore the betrayed hopes surrounding the liberation from colonial rule in the 1950s and 1960s7.

Along with the embracing of democratic forms of governance were other opportunities in which we can locate the impulses towards creating media development in Africa.

3 Christopher Brown-Syed, 1999. The New World Order and the geopolitics of information. Available [0]: http://valinor.ca/csyed_libres3.html. Accessed on 2007/06/18.

4 PANA’s objectives were to ‘to rectify the distorted image of Africa created by the international news agencies and to let the voice of Africa be heard on the international news scene’.

5 G Hyden, & C Okigbo. 2002. The media and the two waves of democracy, in Media and democracy in Africa edited by Goran Hyden, Michael Leslie & Folu F. Ogundimu. New Brunswick (U.S.A) and London (U.K.): Transaction Publishers: 29-53.

6 SP Huntington. 1991. The third wave: democratization in the late twentieth century. Norman and London: University of Oklahoma Press.7 L Diamond & MF Plattner, (eds). 1999. Democratization in Africa. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press.

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Liberalization: deregulation of the media landscape

The 1990s saw the unfolding of the process of liberalization from Nigeria to South Africa, with corre-sponding deregulatory policy and legislative changes. The discourse of liberalization led many countries in Africa to promulgate liberal-economic media and information policies. The emergence of a multiplicity of privately owned commercial broadcast and print media channels during this period was attributable to this liberalism, which stressed the pre-eminence of private capital over state capital.

The point to underscore is that there was a rekindling of African private media capital, largely as a conse-quence of the liberal-economic policies adopted across Africa, presenting further opportunities to grow media as businesses and to inject pluralism into the local media spaces. While this was more pronounced in some countries, it was less so in others.

Privatization and commercialization of state media

Along with this political and economic liberalization was a tendency towards the restructuring of the state-owned broadcasting systems inherited from the colonialist masters in line with the public-service ethos. In this regard, two options presented themselves: privatization and/or commercialization. Most countries preferred the latter to the former. A related issue here was the setting up of ‘independent’ broadcasting regulatory authorities. In this regard, the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA), the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), the Independent Broad-casting Authority (IBA) in Zambia and the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) are examples. However, the ‘independence’ of these bodies has remained a contested issue, with the intensity of ‘in-dependence’ varying from country to country. For example, South Africa’s ICASA is much freer than Zimbabwe’s BAZ.8

A communitarian agenda for the democratization of the media

Communitarian forms of democratization would emphasize the utopian social or ‘community’ potential of democracy. This would seek to privilege a deeper, more participatory form of democracy in which com-munities influence the news-media agenda. As an element of democratization, its popularity in Africa oc-curred at the height of the transnationalization of civil society in the 1990s. For example, the international broadcasting policy campaign of the World Association for Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC), headquartered in Montréal, legitimated community radio broadcasting as an alternative medium distinct from state and commercial broadcasting in Africa. It was such transnational networks that carried forth the ideology and practice of communitarian communication.

However, the emergence of communitarian forms of media, such as community radio broadcasting, was not without its problems. Services were concentrated along the line of rail, excluding the majority of the rural poor. The programming was more entertainment based than developmental. Other problems included little funding, too few volunteers, lack of training, et cetera.

The re-regulation of the media

Some countries, such as Zimbabwe, experienced a reversal in the liberalization process and re-regulated the media industry through a series of heavy policy and legislative measures. This was also evident, albeit in more subtle ways, in several other countries through the harassment of journalists and the withdrawal of state advertising from privately owned media institutions.

8 F.Banda, 2003. Community radio broadcasting in Zambia: a policy perspective. PhD thesis, University of South Africa, Pretoria.

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1.1.3 Contemporary efforts at media development in Africa

At least within the specific context of Africa, it would not be far-fetched to argue that the beginnings of an international support mechanism for the media is traceable to Windhoek, Namibia. In 1991, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) called for a gathering of media practitioners and press freedom organizations in Namibia on May 3. This conference culminated in the Windhoek Declaration on Promoting an Independent and Pluralistic African Press. The Declaration set the background for the proclamation by the United Nations General Assembly of May 3 as ‘World Press Freedom Day’. The Declaration repudiated state ownership of media institutions and justified the doc-trine of media liberalization and privatization.

Beyond the Windhoek Declaration, there is clear evidence of more engagement with the discourse of media development in various African documents generated since Windhoek. For example, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, in Article 9, echoes the rights in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights has elaborated this in its Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa. The Declaration is important because it elaborates in considerable detail what is meant by freedom of expression. This includes a number of other points of particular relevance for the development of broadcasting services in Africa, such as (a) the need to encourage the development of private broadcasting, (b) the need to transform state or govern-ment broadcasters into genuine public broadcasters, and (c) the need for independent broadcasting regulatory bodies. These points are, in turn, reinforced by the African Charter on Broadcasting, adopted in 2001 on the tenth anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration.

The defining moment in the discourse of media development was associated with the establishment of the CfA in early 2004 by the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair. The Commission report, released on 11 March 2005, marked a milestone in British engagement with Africa on issues of media and communica-tion. Although the Commission, preoccupation was with much more than media issues, it was clear that there was some attention paid to the potential role of media in the development of the continent. While there is, in some quarters, unrelenting criticism of the Commission’s, it is undeniable that it ignited much of the debate about creating support for the development of the media in Africa. Out of that report, it can be argued, emerged a number of initiatives that are performing specific tasks to keep the discourse on media development alive.

The Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD)

The American-based Internews, in conjunction with several media-support organizations in Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia, organized the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD) held in Amman, Jor-dan, towards the end of 2005. The gathering was attended by many of the well-established media support organizations in Africa, including some media owners and practitioners. One of the main aims of GFMD as a media development implementation and collaboration body was a parallel movement by media devel-opment donors to share information among themselves about best practices, present priorities, and ways of measuring success – what we might characterize as the donors’ ‘bureaucratic’ strategy for harmonizing their support to the media sector.

Apart from this, the goals of GFMD are to:• Attract the broad but currently disparate community of media assistance organizations and

share experiences and information across the media aid sector;• Improve the quality of technical assistance of the sector and develop common monitoring

and evaluation methodologies;

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• Offer an extensive web-based platform of resources for media professionals;• Disseminate research on the role of the media in economic growth democratization and

institutional reform process;• Establish an ongoing donor-implementer dialogue that would enable media assistance orga-

nizations to contribute to the formulation of media development policies that enhance the impact of the media assistance sector and the long-term sustainability of independent media; and

• Advocate for the higher-level, strategic policy linkages between media support and existing human and economic development instruments and frameworks (e.g. Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs); Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).9

One particularly relevant recommendation emerging from the Amman conference was the possible for-mation of an African Forum for Media Development (AFMD). While the principle of a continental forum was generally welcome, there was some uncertainty about its workability.

The point to underscore is that the AFMD is serving to further animate the notion of a global or interna-tional support mechanism for media in Africa.

The African Media Development Initiative (AMDI)

AMDI was instigated by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) World Service Trust, in association with two African universities, including Rhodes University of South Africa and Amadu Bello University of Nigeria. The main activity underpinning the initiative was a research project aimed at (a) collecting media statistics in 17 African countries in order to determine what changes have occurred in the media landscape between 2000 and 2005; and (b) conducting in-depth interviews with key informants (media owners, government officials, NGO leaders, and religious authorities) about their perceptions of media development in each of the 17 countries.10 To take the example of Zambia, a review of media develop-ment initiatives between 2000 and 2005 reveals the following:

• There is a diversity of media development initiatives in Zambia – some of these are originat-ed and financially supported by the media houses themselves while others are a partnership between media support organizations and donors;

• There is a need for the involvement of multiple actors in any media development initiative, as evidenced in the success of a multi-stakeholder campaign for legislative reforms and the withdrawal of value added tax (VAT) on the cover price of newspapers and magazines;

• Media development activities need to have an inbuilt sustainability plan in order to have a lasting impact;

• Donor support needs to have less conditionality and promote the recipient’s independence and innovativeness;

• Culture must be built into any media development initiative for such an initiative to have resonance among the beneficiaries; and

• Commercial interests are increasingly seen as an important part of any media development initiative, particularly if they can be persuaded to invest in the media sector11.

9 Global Forum for Media Development. 2005. Draft report of the Global Forum for Media Development Conference. Amman, Jordan: GFMD.10 BBC World Service Trust. 2006. African Media Development Initiative (AMDI). [0]. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/trust/specials/1552_trust_amdi/index.

shtml. Accessed on 2006/09/11.11 F Banda. 2006. Zambia African Media Development Initiative (AMDI) research report. London: BBC World Service Trust.

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1.2 Objectives of the STREAM consultative process

Alongside the developments charted above, there has been unfolding yet another process under the aegis of UNECA. More specifically, this process started with a meeting of selected media and communications experts in March 2006 in Addis Ababa at the invitation of UNECA. This process, like the AMDI research, was supported by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). UNECA was seen as a ‘neutral’ broker of the dialogue that would ensue among media players in Africa, and would, given its stra-tegic position, provide the best route possible for recommendations to reach the AU and other stake-holders. The key recommendation emerging out of the Addis Ababa meeting was to ‘root’ the consulta-tion process within the different geographic and linguistic regions of Africa.

Underpinned by this theme of African ownership, the STREAM process spelt out three key objectives, namely to:

• Arrive at a shared understanding of the state of the media and communication sector in Africa;

• Explore the extent to which different actors in Africa could develop a common framework of action based on a shared agenda for media development; and

• Inform the design and implementation of a consultation process towards a coherent and inclusive set of interventions to strengthen media institutions in Africa12.

These objectives were underpinned by three key principles, namely:• The centrality of African voices and perspectives;• African ownership and leadership; and• Coherence in funding and partnership

12 UNECA. 2006. Strengthening Africa’s media: building sustainable institutions to bolster the public sphere and nurture effective states. Report of the workshop held at Economic Commission for Africa. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 9-10 March 2006.

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The consultative process employed a qualitative methodology, centred around an understanding of the centrality of generating African insights into the dynamics of strengthening media institutions on the con-tinent.

More specifically, the consultation was based on the interpretive approach. As an example of ethnometh-odology, interpretivism entails an approach to social science research that emphasizes the importance of insiders’ viewpoints and perspectives to understanding social reality. This approach assumes that:

People have the ability to interpret a situation and decide how to act in response to this situation. By consciously participating in a situation, they attribute meaning to that situation. Meaning is constructed through human beings interacting with each other and playing a central role in defining a situation to make sense of it.13

2.1 Ethnographic data collection

Informed by this interpretivist approach, the consultative process sought to enlist Africans’ insights and reflections. The consultative method thus employed the following ethnographic data-gathering techniques:

• Expert reference group: The March meeting in Addis Ababa resulted in the creation of a task force of 10 experts. The task force would serve as an expert reference group upon which to bounce off ideas for taking the consultation forward. In particular, the reference group would offer (a) guidance, (b) expert technical advice, and (c) other relevant input to the secretariat’s work. The Communication Team of UNECA would serve as a ‘secretariat’ to service the process in terms of logistics, collection and collation of background data, physi-cal representation at various forums, and general administrative support. The reference group would, through intellectual and other input, drive the process, ensuring that there was regional and linguistic representation embedded throughout.

To this end, the composition of the task force reflected an Afro-centric agenda for media development. In addition, given the broader task of building consensus across different ac-tors, the composition of the task force included media trainers/educators, media practitio-ners, media owners, media support organizations, including feminist groups, and others. In itself, this ensured a semblance of thematic and stakeholder representativity, itself a useful ethnographic device for getting comprehensive insights.

• Online discussions: Taking advantage of the Internet, the consultation engaged the different stakeholders identified above in an electronic discussion around key questions. The stake-

13 C.Puttergill, 2000. Strategies of discovery, in Research in the social sciences. Study guide for RSC201-H. Pretoria: University of South Africa.

Chapter 2: Methodology

10


holder respondents included: (a) practitioners; (b) owners; (c) trainers; (d) special interest groups; and (e) support organizations. Each of them had a set of specific questions to dis-cuss. The questions were arrived at through a process of discussion between the secretariat and the expert reference group. This ensured that the questions reflected a shared under-standing of the media and communications dynamics in Africa.

This electronic discussion lasted for 12 weeks, having being launched on 20 April 2006. Each thematic session covered a two-week period. In the final 2 weeks of the electronic consul-tation, the issues raised were revisited, and participants asked to clarify and flesh out their proposals. This ensured a degree of unanimity on key points and proposals, further embed-ding the process of dialogue in the shared experiences of the stakeholders.

• Physical consultation meetings: The physical meetings were organized on the principle of geo-linguistic representativity. This would allow for an analysis that, though shared, was reflective of the geo-political specificities of the respondents. Africa is often portrayed as a homogenous whole when, in fact, it is a diverse continent. This is not to suggest that there are no commonalities of perspective and approach to issues of media and communication. It is to acknowledge that this diversity can, in fact, be unified around a common agenda for action.

To this end, consultation meetings were held as follows:

Table 1: Physical consultation meetings

Region Date Facilitating agency Number of participants

Southern Africa June 2006 Media Institute for Southern Africa (MISA) 60

West and Central Africa (Francophone)

July 2006 Panos Institute for West Africa (PIWA) 44

West Africa (Anglophone) September 2006 Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) 50

East Africa September 2006 African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET)

45

North Africa January 2007 Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) 23

The facilitating agencies invited a cross-section of organizations and individuals from different countries in their regions. In all, the meetings drew participants from over 30 African countries. A significant point to bear in mind is the participation of North African countries – Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia. They added an Afro-Arab dimension and depth to the consultations, contributory to even greater pan-African understanding of the media and communication situation on the continent. Another point to emphasize is the multi-dimensionality of the process of consultation as it included trainers and educators, owners, journalists, media supporters, etc.

The individual reports covering both the online discussions and the physical regional consultations, as well as other complementary information, are available online at: http://www.uneca.org/africanmedia. While this consolidated report brings out the generality of the findings, the regional overviews are specific enough to give the findings their regional integrity.

The regional reports will also reveal the differing methodological approaches to the process of consulta-tion. While each region was agreed on the general principles of inclusiveness, dialogue, participation, etc.,

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there were clear differences in the way the meetings were conducted. For example, the regional report on the Francophone meeting will show that the organizers wanted to establish whether or not the participants had taken part in the online consultation. About 81 per cent did not take part in the online discussion. This, the report concludes, might have resulted in a weaker understanding of the themes of the conference. While this may have been viewed as a weakness in that part of the continent, it may not necessarily have been viewed as such elsewhere, largely because the participants still brought along with them specific experience and understanding of the topics for discussion.

2.2 Analysis and interpretation

The data collection processes above yielded massive information that needed to be analysed and in-terpreted in very specific ways. One such way was to relate the information to the media dynamics described in Chapter 2, further illuminating the actual social context within which the agenda for media development was evolving.

More importantly, consistent with ethnography, the techniques used to analyse and interpret the data included the use of:

• First-order interpretations, whereby the participants’ or respondents’ own narratives or responses formed the interpretive repertoires;

• Second-order interpretations, whereby the UNECA secretariat, together with the expert reference group, provided commentary on these narratives and responses, interpreting them against the backdrop of the particular media-communicational historical context within which they unfolded.14 This ensured that the outcomes of the consultations became implicated in wider debates about media and communications in Africa, and beyond. It also ensured that the analysis was framed in terms of manageable interpretive categories, such as media policy, technology, funding, training, etc.

2.3 Methodological problems

A key problem to highlight here is the fact that the online discussions were characterized by low levels of participation among media owners, compared to those of media practitioners. This does not mean that media owners have fewer issues to deal with as this it may well be explained in terms of the busy sched-ules such executives have to maintain. The disadvantage here could be that media owners’ issues might pale beside those of media practitioners and support organizations.

This problem was addressed in two ways. First, media owners did participate in the physical consultations. Second, most of the issues tabled by the other stakeholders – media support organizations, media train-ers/educators, etc. – mirrored most of the concerns of the media owners.

14 C.Puttergill, 2000. Analysing and interpreting qualitative data, in Research in the social sciences. Study guide for RSC201-H. Pretoria: University of South Africa.


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The findings of the consultation, drawing upon all the data collection techniques above, are categorized in terms of regional overviews. This is followed, in Chapter 5, by a synthesized pan-African discussion. While the regional overviews are particularistic, the pan-African synthesis is a general analysis of the findings, drawing out common themes and issues and situating them within the context described in Chapter 2 above.

3.1 Regional overviews

The discussions at these geo-linguistic consultations tended to reflect the discursive positions of media practitioners, media owners, media trainers and media support organizations. They are integrated here as such.

Chapter 3: Findings

14


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is a

lso

a gr

owin

g bu

t fle

dglin

g pr

ivat

e-se

ctor

med

ia –

sus

tain

-ab

ility

is s

till a

pro

blem

(i.e

. adv

ertis

ing

is n

ot r

eadi

ly a

vaila

ble

and

com

petit

ion

for

stat

e ad

vert

isin

g is

ram

pant

)•

The

re is

a c

lear

ten

denc

y to

war

ds o

ver-

com

mer

cial

izat

ion

of m

edia

, w

ith e

dito

rial

con

tent

larg

ely

driv

en b

y co

mm

erci

al c

onsi

dera

tions

• A

rel

ated

phe

nom

enon

is t

hat

of t

he e

mer

genc

e of

pri

vate

med

ia

mon

opol

ies,

conc

entr

atin

g m

edia

ow

ners

hip

in fe

wer

and

few

er

hand

s, su

ch a

s in

Bot

swan

a.•

The

mai

nstr

eam

med

ia a

re in

crea

sing

ly b

ecom

ing

‘urb

aniz

ed’,

dis-

conn

ecte

d fr

om t

he r

ural

info

rmat

ion

need

ed b

y th

e po

or•

Stat

e m

edia

ow

ners

hip

is s

till e

vide

nt, i

n so

me

case

s po

sing

a t

hrea

t to

the

tra

nsfo

rmat

ion

of s

tate

med

ia in

to g

enui

ne p

ublic

ser

vice

m

edia

• T

he g

row

th o

f ver

nacu

lar-

lang

uage

med

ia is

ver

y sl

ow; i

n so

me

case

s, su

ch a

s Bo

tsw

ana,

ther

e is

no

com

mun

ity r

adio

. Whe

re

com

mun

ity r

adio

exi

sts,

such

as

in M

alaw

i, M

ozam

biqu

e an

d So

uth

Afr

ica,

ther

e is

no

real

com

mun

ity e

ngag

emen

t in

suc

h in

itiat

ives

• M

edia

con

tent

has

not

impr

oved

in it

s po

rtra

yal o

f wom

en, j

ust

as it

s co

vera

ge o

f HIV

/Aid

s is

oft

en in

corr

ect

and

too

little

to

be

mea

ning

ful

The

con

sulta

nts,

in n

o sp

ecifi

c or

der,

agre

ed o

n th

e fo

llow

ing

set

of p

ropo

sals

for

stre

ngth

enin

g th

e m

edia

:

Polic

y an

d le

gisla

tion

• C

ontin

ue t

o ca

mpa

ign

for

the

enac

tmen

t of

legi

slat

ion

to t

rans

form

sta

te

broa

dcas

ting

into

pub

lic s

ervi

ce b

road

cast

ing

• A

s pa

rt o

f thi

s ca

mpa

ign,

con

tinue

to

lobb

y fo

r th

e re

peal

of e

xist

ing

repr

essi

ve

med

ia-r

elat

ed le

gisl

atio

n ex

tant

in m

ost

coun

trie

s. In

Zim

babw

e, fo

r ex

ampl

e,

such

effo

rts

shou

ld t

arge

t th

e A

cces

s to

Info

rmat

ion

and

Prot

ectio

n of

Pri

vacy

A

ct a

s w

ell a

s th

e M

edia

and

Info

rmat

ion

Com

mis

sion

Com

mun

icat

ions

infra

stru

ctur

e•

Exte

nd t

he c

ampa

ign

abov

e to

incl

ude

lobb

ying

for

mor

e m

edia

-sup

port

ive

tele

com

mun

icat

ions

-infr

astr

uctu

ral p

olic

ies,

incl

udin

g In

tern

et c

onne

ctiv

ity, e

tc.

for

univ

ersa

l ser

vice

and

acc

ess

Med

ia r

egul

atio

n an

d co

nten

t pro

duct

ion

• T

he a

dvoc

acy

cam

paig

n sh

ould

incl

ude

an e

xplic

it pr

opos

al fo

r su

ppor

ting

the

prin

cipl

e of

med

ia s

elf-

regu

latio

n•

Such

med

ia r

egul

atio

n sh

ould

cle

arly

spe

ll ou

t ho

w t

he m

edia

can

ove

rcom

e th

e ov

er-c

omm

erci

aliz

atio

n of

con

tent

, bea

ring

in m

ind

the

soci

etal

nee

d fo

r ac

cess

ible

and

‘qua

lity’

med

ia c

onte

nt.

• M

edia

con

tent

reg

ulat

ion

shou

ld a

lso

emph

asiz

e th

e ne

ed fo

r en

hanc

ing

the

cove

rage

of s

uch

cros

s-cu

ttin

g is

sues

as

gend

er a

nd H

IV/A

ids

Med

ia s

usta

inab

ility

• In

clud

e in

the

adv

ocac

y ca

mpa

ign

aspe

cts

of h

ow p

riva

te c

omm

erci

al m

edia

ca

n co

mpe

te fa

irly

for

stat

e ad

vert

isin

g, w

hich

ten

ds t

o fa

vour

pub

lic m

edia

• Ex

plor

e, a

s pa

rt o

f the

bro

ader

med

ia d

evel

opm

ent

agen

da, t

he e

ffica

cy o

f de

velo

ping

a m

ixed

fund

ing

or s

usta

inab

ility

mod

el fo

r m

edia

inst

itutio

ns

Med

ia p

lura

lity

and

dive

rsity

• G

reat

er e

ffort

sho

uld

be m

ade

to c

ampa

ign

for

a re

conc

eptu

aliz

atio

n of

co

mm

unity

med

ia in

ter

ms

of a

‘hyb

rid’

mod

el (

com

mun

ity-c

omm

erci

al-p

ublic

pa

rtne

rshi

p m

odel

) th

at c

an m

ore

effe

ctiv

ely

serv

ice

the

com

mun

ity

15


Th

eme

An

alys

isP

rop

osa

lsM

edia

ow

ners

hip

• T

he n

otio

n of

‘pri

vate

med

ia o

wne

rshi

p’ is

var

ied

in m

ost

coun

trie

s –

rang

ing

from

fam

ily m

edia

out

lets

in M

alaw

i, th

e pr

ivat

ely-

owne

d Sw

azi O

bser

ver

with

str

ong

roya

l con

nect

ions

, to

‘com

mun

ity’

owne

rshi

p. E

ach

of t

hese

mod

els

of p

riva

te m

edia

ow

ners

hip

has

impl

icat

ions

for

med

ia p

erfo

rman

ce•

The

re is

evi

denc

e to

sug

gest

tha

t ge

nera

lly t

he c

onst

itutio

nal a

nd

lega

l reg

imes

are

not

sup

port

ive

of m

edia

dev

elop

men

t, al

thou

gh

ther

e ar

e si

gns

of c

hang

es fo

r th

e be

tter

in s

ome

coun

trie

s•

The

re s

eem

s to

be

cont

inui

ng s

tate

inte

rest

in t

he p

erfo

rman

ce o

f pr

ivat

e-se

ctor

med

ia (

e.g.

the

clos

ing

dow

n of

The

Sw

azi O

bser

ver,

etc.

)•

The

re is

als

o ev

iden

ce o

f adv

ertis

er in

fluen

ce o

n th

e ed

itori

al

cont

ent

of p

riva

te m

edia

, with

the

res

ult

that

the

qua

lity

of e

dito

rial

co

nten

t st

ands

com

prom

ised

in s

ome

case

s. Su

ch in

fluen

ce e

ma-

nate

s fr

om b

oth

priv

ate

and

stat

e bu

sine

ss c

once

rns)

• T

here

is in

crea

sed

com

petit

ion

for

the

exis

ting

smal

l med

ia m

arke

ts

in m

ost

of t

he s

ubre

gion

.•

The

re is

als

o in

crea

sed

com

petit

ion

for

the

avai

labl

e go

vern

men

t ad

vert

isin

g (w

hile

thi

s is

a g

row

ing

prob

lem

for

som

e co

untr

ies,

such

as

Swaz

iland

, it

does

not

app

ear

to b

e so

for

othe

r co

untr

ies,

such

as

Bots

wan

a)•

The

re is

a la

ck o

f tra

inin

g fo

r jo

urna

lists

, with

the

res

ult

that

re

port

ing

of s

peci

aliz

ed is

sues

, suc

h as

gen

der,

HIV

/Aid

s, et

c. s

uffe

rs

from

a la

ck o

f qua

lity

• T

here

is a

lso

a hi

gh t

urno

ver

of s

taff,

giv

en t

he fa

ct t

hat

the

med

ia

inst

itutio

ns d

o no

t ge

nera

lly r

emun

erat

e th

em w

ell

• T

here

is a

ten

denc

y to

war

ds p

rofit

-max

imiz

atio

n by

the

pri

vate

-se

ctor

med

ia•

In t

he s

ame

brea

th, t

he in

crea

sing

‘com

mer

cial

izat

ion’

of s

tate

/pub

lic

med

ia is

pos

ing

undu

e co

mpe

titio

n fo

r th

e pr

ivat

e m

edia

• T

here

is a

n in

crea

sing

tra

ns-n

atio

naliz

atio

n of

Sou

th A

fric

an m

edia

m

ogul

s th

roug

hout

Afr

ica,

posi

ng a

cha

lleng

e fo

r lo

cal m

edia

. Whi

le

this

is a

wel

com

e de

velo

pmen

t in

ter

ms

of m

edia

plu

ralis

m, i

t th

reat

ens

to u

nder

min

e lo

cal c

onte

nt p

rodu

ctio

n, w

hich

is c

ritic

al

for

natio

nal d

evel

opm

ent

Polic

y an

d le

gisla

tion

• St

ep u

p ad

voca

cy fo

r an

ena

blin

g co

nstit

utio

nal a

nd le

gal r

egim

e to

gua

rant

ee

med

ia fr

eedo

m•

Such

adv

ocac

y sh

ould

als

o ca

ll fo

r th

e re

mov

al o

f und

ue li

mita

tions

on

fore

ign

owne

rshi

p of

med

ia t

o en

cour

age

inve

stm

ent

into

the

sec

tor

Med

ia tr

aini

ng•

Usi

ng e

xist

ing

med

ia s

uppo

rt in

stitu

tions

and

oth

er s

take

hold

ers,

crea

te a

nd

iden

tify

trai

ning

opp

ortu

nitie

s fo

r m

edia

inst

itutio

ns, i

nclu

ding

tho

se t

hat

focu

s on

str

ateg

ic is

sues

of g

ende

r se

nsiti

vity

in m

edia

pro

duct

ion,

HIV

/Aid

s re

port

-in

g, et

c.

Med

ia s

usta

inab

ility

• A

naly

se e

xist

ing

mod

els

of fu

ndin

g m

edia

(e.

g. Z

ambi

a’s M

edia

Tru

st F

und

(MT

F); S

outh

Afr

ica’s

Med

ia D

evel

opm

ent

and

Div

ersi

ty A

genc

y (M

DD

A);

Sout

hern

Afr

ican

Med

ia D

evel

opm

ent

Fund

(SA

MD

EF)

and

the

Sout

hern

Afr

i-ca

n In

stitu

te fo

r M

edia

Ent

repr

eneu

rshi

p D

evel

opm

ent

(SA

IMED

) an

d re

com

-m

end

an a

ppro

pria

te m

edia

sus

tain

abili

ty m

odel

tha

t do

es n

ot je

opar

dize

the

pr

inci

ples

of m

edia

plu

ralis

m a

nd d

iver

sity

• A

t th

e m

edia

-inst

itutio

nal l

evel

, suc

h an

ana

lysi

s ca

n be

ext

ende

d to

incl

ude

as-

sess

ing

diffe

rent

pos

sibi

litie

s of

eco

nom

ic s

usta

inab

ility

, suc

h as

pub

lic-p

riva

te-

com

mun

ity p

artn

ersh

ips,

‘con

cent

ratio

n’, ‘c

ongl

omer

atio

n’, s

yndi

catio

n, e

tc. w

ith

due

rega

rd t

o is

sues

of m

edia

div

ersi

ty a

nd q

ualit

y•

Oth

er a

naly

ses

coul

d fo

cus

on in

stitu

tiona

lizin

g: (a

) m

onito

ring

and

eva

luat

ion

syst

ems

to e

nsur

e qu

ality

med

ia s

ervi

ces;

(b)

audi

ence

res

earc

h; (

c) e

xcha

nge

prog

ram

mes

; and

(d)

the

use

of i

nnov

ativ

e pr

oduc

tion

tech

niqu

es, e

spec

ially

th

ose

that

rel

y on

‘peo

ple’

s vo

ices

’ (vo

x po

puli)

in o

rder

to

prom

ote

dial

ogue

• D

iver

sify

fund

ing

base

Med

ia n

etw

orks

• U

se t

he c

olle

ctiv

e po

wer

of m

edia

inst

itutio

ns t

o en

gage

with

sta

te a

utho

ritie

s ov

er m

edia

issu

es•

Cre

ate

new

, and

str

engt

hen

exis

ting,

inte

rnat

iona

l par

tner

ship

s fo

r a

cons

oli-

date

d ca

mpa

ign

for

stre

ngth

enin

g m

edia

inst

itutio

ns, i

nclu

ding

don

ors,

but

on

med

ia o

wne

rs’ t

erm

s•

Expl

ore,

sev

eral

ly o

r in

divi

dual

ly, p

ossi

bilit

ies

for

join

t bu

sine

ss v

entu

res

with

th

e ‘tr

ans-

natio

naliz

ing’

Sou

th A

fric

an m

edia

mog

uls

(e.g

. Mul

tiCho

ice

Afr

ica,

etc.

)

16


Th

eme

An

alys

isP

rop

osa

lsM

edia

tra

inin

g•

The

re is

a v

arie

ty o

f med

ia t

rain

ing/

educ

atio

nal p

rogr

amm

es in

the

su

breg

ion,

offe

red

at d

iffer

ent

leve

ls o

f cer

tifica

tion

(ter

tiary

, in-

ser-

vice

, ind

ustr

y-ba

sed,

etc

.)•

Som

e of

thi

s tr

aini

ng is

dri

ven

and

fund

ed b

y do

nors

, alth

ough

the

re

is a

fair

am

ount

of p

riva

te a

nd p

ublic

fund

ing

for

it•

The

con

tent

of t

he t

rain

ing

is b

oth

theo

retic

al a

nd p

ract

ical

, but

the

th

eory

-pra

ctic

e co

nten

t ra

tio v

arie

s fr

om t

rain

er t

o tr

aine

r•

The

ele

men

ts o

f thi

s tr

aini

ng c

onte

nt a

re a

lso

vari

ed –

ran

ging

from

m

ains

trea

m jo

urna

lism

, com

mun

ity jo

urna

lism

, med

ia s

tudi

es, m

ass

com

mun

icat

ion,

to

new

med

ia•

In e

ach

coun

try,

ther

e ap

pear

to

be s

peci

fic p

robl

ems

with

whi

ch

med

ia t

rain

ers

grap

ple

(In

Bots

wan

a, it

mig

ht b

e ‘m

edia

law

’; in

, So

uth

Afr

ica,

‘tech

nolo

gica

l con

verg

ence

’; in

oth

er c

ount

ries

, ‘bus

i-ne

ss m

anag

emen

t’, ‘c

hang

e m

anag

emen

t’, e

tc)

• M

edia

tra

inin

g is

cer

tified

var

ious

ly (

degr

ees,

dipl

omas

, cer

tifica

tes,

etc.

) an

d th

is c

ertifi

catio

n is

info

rmed

by

coun

try-

spec

ific

polic

y an

d le

gisl

ativ

e pr

oced

ures

• T

here

is n

o st

anda

rdiz

ed, S

AD

C-d

eter

min

ed c

ertifi

catio

n of

med

ia

trai

ning

• W

hile

som

e co

untr

ies

have

har

mon

ized

nat

iona

l pol

icie

s an

d la

ws

on m

edia

tra

inin

g an

d re

late

d ag

enci

es t

o im

plem

ent

such

pol

icie

s (e

.g. S

AQ

A in

Sou

th A

fric

a), o

ther

cou

ntri

es d

o no

t (e

.g. M

alaw

i)•

The

re is

a g

ener

ally

unc

lear

rel

atio

nshi

p be

twee

n in

dust

ry a

nd

med

ia t

rain

ers,

alth

ough

the

nee

d fo

r th

is is

rec

ogni

zed

and

sup-

port

ed b

y bo

th m

edia

tra

iner

s an

d in

dust

ry le

ader

s. In

Sou

th A

fric

a, ho

wev

er, t

here

app

ears

to

be s

uch

a lin

k be

twee

n th

e So

uth

Afr

ican

Ed

itors

’ For

um a

nd t

he In

stitu

te fo

r th

e A

dvan

cem

ent

of Jo

urna

lism

(I

AJ)

• A

lso

evid

ent

was

a r

ecog

niza

ble

stra

tegy

by

med

ia o

wne

rs t

o sh

un

trai

ning

the

ir s

taff

for

fear

tha

t th

ey m

ight

leav

e th

em fo

r gr

eene

r pa

stur

es•

Whi

le s

ome

trai

ning

inst

itutio

ns a

re e

xper

imen

ting

with

onl

ine

trai

ning

, thi

s do

es n

ot a

pp

ea

r to

be

a tr

end

yet

• T

here

is a

cle

ar r

ecog

nitio

n of

the

nee

d fo

r qu

ality

ass

uran

ce o

f the

m

edia

tra

inin

g of

fere

d th

roug

hout

the

sub

regi

on, e

spec

ially

thr

ough

re

gula

r ev

alua

tion

and

mon

itori

ng. T

his

is c

urre

ntly

don

e va

riou

sly

in t

he s

ubre

gion

. It

also

diff

ers

from

inst

itutio

n to

inst

itutio

n. In

so

me

case

s, th

ere

are

form

al e

valu

atio

ns c

ondu

cted

; in

othe

rs, t

his

is d

one

thro

ugh

peri

odic

cur

ricu

lum

rev

iew

s, ex

tern

al e

xam

iner

s, et

c. A

dded

to

this

is t

he q

uest

ion

of h

ow ‘i

mpa

ct’ c

an in

fact

be

capt

ured

thr

ough

suc

h ev

alua

tion

• T

here

is a

ten

denc

y fo

r m

edia

ow

ners

to

empl

oy p

eopl

e fr

om d

is-

cipl

ines

oth

er t

han

jour

nalis

m a

nd im

part

jour

nalis

tic s

kills

to

them

in

-hou

se, m

uch

to t

he d

isap

poin

tmen

t of

man

y a

trai

ned

jour

nalis

t

Polic

y an

d le

gisla

tion

• O

rgan

ize,

und

er t

he a

egis

of n

atio

nal-l

evel

med

ia s

uppo

rt/t

rain

ing

inst

itutio

ns,

natio

nal c

onsu

ltativ

e pr

oces

ses

to d

evel

op n

atio

nal m

edia

pol

icie

s, es

peci

ally

in

coun

trie

s w

here

thi

s ha

s no

t ye

t be

en d

one

i.e. h

arm

oniz

e st

anda

rds,

effe

ctiv

ely

sequ

ence

tra

inin

g, en

sure

qua

lity

cont

rol,

etc.

aga

inst

the

bac

kdro

p of

nat

iona

l-le

vel l

earn

ing

desc

ript

ors

for

med

ia t

rain

ing

of v

ario

us t

ypes

• A

s pa

rt o

f tha

t na

tiona

l pol

icy

on m

edia

tra

inin

g, de

velo

p qu

ality

con

trol

gu

idel

ines

for

shor

ter-

term

cou

rses

offe

red

by e

mer

ging

tra

iner

s ac

ross

the

su

breg

ion

Intr

a-in

stitu

tiona

l pol

icie

s •

Dev

elop

in-h

ouse

tra

inin

g po

licie

s•

Enco

urag

e va

lue-

addi

ng s

taff

exch

ange

pro

gram

mes

• Sh

are

rese

arch

and

doc

umen

tatio

n ge

nera

ted

by m

edia

sup

port

org

aniz

atio

ns,

and

vice

ver

sa•

Enco

urag

e m

edia

ow

ners

to

empl

oy t

rain

ed p

eopl

e to

hea

d to

p po

sts

Net

wor

king

• St

reng

then

and

pub

liciz

e th

e So

uthe

rn A

fric

an M

edia

Tra

iner

s N

etw

ork

(SA

M-

TR

AN

)•

Dev

elop

SA

DC

-wid

e st

anda

rds

for

eval

uatin

g an

d m

onito

ring

the

qua

lity

of

trai

ning

, im

plem

enta

ble

with

in t

he c

onte

xt o

f nat

iona

l pol

icie

s on

med

ia t

rain

-in

g

Fund

ing

for

high

er e

duca

tion

• G

iven

the

nee

d fo

r co

ntin

uity

from

‘tra

inin

g’ t

o ‘e

duca

tion’

(cr

itica

l thi

nkin

g),

any

cam

paig

ns e

mba

rked

upo

n m

ust

prio

ritiz

e fu

ndin

g to

war

ds h

ighe

r ed

uca-

tion

thro

ugh:

(a)

pro

visi

on o

f sch

olar

ship

s; an

d (b

) m

ento

r pr

ogra

mm

es

1�


Th

eme

An

alys

isP

rop

osa

lsM

edia

sup

port

•

Dis

cern

ible

, fro

m t

he 1

990s

onw

ards

, are

cle

ar e

xam

ples

of s

tron

-ge

r m

edia

sup

port

org

aniz

atio

ns t

hat

have

em

erge

d in

the

SA

DC

su

breg

ion

• T

heir

‘sup

port

’ find

s ex

pres

sion

in v

ario

us fo

rms.

For

exam

ple,

SA

MD

EF o

ffers

fina

nce

capi

tal;

SAIM

ED o

ffers

‘dev

elop

men

tal’

and

entr

epre

neur

ial e

xper

tise;

MIS

A p

rovi

des

advo

cacy

. Man

y ot

hers

lo

bby

for

diffe

rent

cau

ses

that

impa

ct o

n m

edia

str

uctu

res

and

proc

esse

s, su

ch a

s th

e G

ende

r an

d M

edia

Sou

ther

n A

fric

a (G

EMSA

) N

etw

ork

• SA

MD

EF is

mod

elle

d af

ter

the

Euro

pean

Med

ia D

evel

opm

ent

Loan

Fu

nd (

MD

LF),

high

light

ing

the

need

for

less

on le

arni

ng a

cros

s ge

o-cu

ltura

l fro

ntie

rs•

The

re a

re a

lso

natio

nal i

nitia

tives

, suc

h as

the

Med

ia T

rust

Fun

d in

Z

ambi

a an

d th

e M

DD

A in

Sou

th A

fric

a•

The

re w

as a

n im

port

ant

reco

gniti

on t

hat

wha

teve

r th

e ty

pe o

f sup

-po

rt o

ffere

d, it

is li

mite

d i.e

. ins

uffic

ient

fund

ing

Polic

y an

d le

gisla

tion

• St

ep u

p on

-goi

ng a

dvoc

acy

for

med

ia-b

usin

ess-

frie

ndly

pol

icy

and

lega

l env

iron

-m

ents

Med

ia c

onte

nt p

rodu

ctio

n•

Lobb

y fo

r ge

nder

equ

ality

in m

edia

pro

duct

ion

and

redr

ess

the

prob

lem

of

ster

eoty

pica

l rep

rese

ntat

ion

of w

omen

, chi

ldre

n an

d ot

her

mar

gina

lized

gro

ups

• En

cour

age

med

ia in

stitu

tions

to

deve

lop

in-h

ouse

pol

icie

s th

at a

re le

ss s

tigm

a-tis

ing

of w

omen

• R

ecog

nize

and

refl

ect

the

link

betw

een

med

ia d

evel

opm

ent

supp

ort

and

extr

a-in

stitu

tiona

l fac

tors

i.e.

the

pol

itica

l situ

atio

n in

a g

iven

cou

ntry

, etc

Med

ia n

etw

orki

ng a

nd fi

nanc

ing

• Si

mpl

ify t

he a

pplic

atio

n an

d ap

prov

al p

roce

dure

s fo

r ac

cess

ing

loan

s fr

om s

uch

lend

ing

inst

itutio

ns a

s SA

MD

EF•

Expl

ore

poss

ibili

ties

of li

nkin

g co

mm

unity

med

ia in

itiat

ives

to

som

e of

the

m

ajor

fina

ncie

rs o

n th

e m

arke

t•

Ana

lyse

and

sup

port

diff

eren

t m

odel

s of

sus

tain

ing

med

ia in

stitu

tions

, suc

h as

th

e po

ssib

ility

of s

yndi

cate

d ne

wsp

rint

pro

cure

men

t•

Prom

ote

netw

orki

ng a

s a

viab

le s

olut

ion

for

med

ia d

evel

opm

ent

by m

obili

zing

an

d le

vera

ging

res

ourc

es fo

r pa

rtne

rshi

ps•

Expl

ore

poss

ibili

ties

of s

ettin

g up

a m

edia

div

ersi

ty fu

nd t

hat

coul

d pr

omot

e eq

uita

ble

repr

esen

tatio

n of

diff

eren

t in

tere

st g

roup

s in

the

med

ia

1�


3.1.

2 Fr

anco

pho

ne W

est

and

Cen

tral

Afr

ica

Tabl

e 3:

Fra

ncop

hone

Wes

t an

d C

entr

al A

fric

an r

egio

nal c

onsu

ltat

ion:

key

find

ings

Th

eme

An

alys

isP

rop

osa

lsM

edia

pra

ctic

eT

here

see

med

to

be g

ener

al c

onse

nsus

on

the

valid

ity o

f the

follo

win

g an

alys

is:

• T

he m

edia

rep

rese

nts

an im

port

ant

aspe

ct o

f the

pol

itica

l pub

lic

sphe

re, c

apab

le o

f cat

alys

ing

citiz

en p

artic

ipat

ion

in s

ocie

ty•

How

ever

, suc

h a

role

nee

ds t

o be

bas

ed o

n a

set

of e

thic

al p

rin-

cipl

es w

hich

jour

nalis

ts m

ust

adhe

re t

o, a

s w

ell a

s on

oth

er c

om-

pete

ncie

s (e

.g. a

war

enes

s of

the

pub

lic in

tere

st, h

umili

ty, c

oura

ge,

auda

city

, res

pons

ibili

ty a

nd m

oral

res

ilien

ce)

• A

s pa

rt o

f thi

s ‘ci

vic’

rol

e of

the

med

ia, t

here

is in

crea

sing

rec

ogni

-tio

n fo

r m

edia

con

tent

to

initi

ate

dial

ogue

with

the

pub

lic•

How

ever

, the

re s

eem

s to

be

a te

nden

cy t

o tr

eat

the

audi

ence

as

‘con

sum

ers’

rat

her

than

‘citi

zens

’.•

Thi

s te

nden

cy is

exp

lain

ed, i

n pa

rt, b

y pr

oble

ms

asso

ciat

ed w

ith,

amon

g ot

her

thin

gs: (

a) s

truc

tura

l inc

apac

ities

(e.

g. in

form

ally

org

a-ni

zed

med

ia);

(b)

econ

omic

con

stra

ints

; (c)

mon

opol

istic

tre

nds;

(d)

igno

ranc

e of

the

‘tar

get’

audi

ence

; and

(e)

une

thic

al b

ehav

iour

(fo

r ex

ampl

e, in

Côt

e d’

Ivoi

re, t

he r

eade

r’s lo

ss o

f int

eres

t in

new

spa-

pers

acc

ount

ed fo

r a

loss

of 2

5 pe

r ce

nt o

f the

rea

ders

hip)

• T

here

is, p

erha

ps in

res

pons

e to

thi

s w

anin

g pu

blic

inte

rest

in t

he

mai

nstr

eam

med

ia, a

rec

ogni

tion

of t

he im

port

ant

role

of c

omm

uni-

ty m

edia

in r

espo

ndin

g to

‘the

con

cret

e in

tere

sts

of t

he p

opul

atio

n’•

The

sub

regi

on r

ecog

nize

s th

e im

port

ance

of p

ublic

med

ia, r

athe

r th

an ‘s

tate

med

ia’

• To

thi

s en

d, t

here

is n

eed

for

polic

y an

d le

gisl

ativ

e fr

amew

orks

to

reco

gniz

e a

thre

e-tie

r m

edia

sys

tem

– p

ublic

, com

mer

cial

and

com

-m

unity

• T

here

is a

rec

ogni

tion

of t

he im

port

ance

of n

ew m

edia

tec

hnol

o-gi

es in

faci

litat

ing

the

wor

k of

med

ia p

ract

ition

ers,

apar

t fr

om t

he

econ

omic

opp

ortu

nitie

s th

ey a

vail

to in

nova

tive

med

ia in

stitu

tions

The

con

sulta

nts,

in n

o sp

ecifi

c or

der,

agre

ed o

n th

e fo

llow

ing

set

of p

ropo

sals

for

stre

ngth

enin

g th

e m

edia

:

Med

ia p

lura

lism

: lega

l and

pol

itica

l fra

mew

orks

• En

gage

loca

l act

ors,

prof

essi

onal

med

ia o

rgan

izat

ions

, the

pub

lic s

ervi

ce a

nd

ICT

act

ors

to c

ondu

ct p

erio

dic

asse

ssm

ents

of t

he s

tatu

s of

reg

iona

l plu

ralis

m

in t

erm

s of

pol

icie

s, le

gisl

atio

n, in

fras

truc

ture

, ins

titut

ions

, act

ors,

etc

• M

anda

te m

edia

sup

port

org

aniz

atio

ns, p

rofe

ssio

nal o

rgan

izat

ions

and

oth

er

acto

rs t

o un

dert

ake

rese

arch

on

the

emer

genc

e of

med

ia r

egul

ator

y bo

dies

in

Wes

t Afr

ica

• Lo

bby

parl

iam

ents

, gov

ernm

ents

, sub

regi

onal

org

aniz

atio

ns a

nd o

ther

rel

evan

t bo

dies

to

desi

gn a

nd im

plem

ent

polic

ies

and

lega

l fra

mew

orks

ben

efici

al t

o A

f-ri

can

med

ia, t

akin

g ca

re t

o en

cour

age

the

grow

th o

f all

tiers

of m

edia

– p

ublic

, pr

ivat

e an

d co

mm

unity

• Es

tabl

ish

a w

eb p

orta

l to

stre

ngth

en n

etw

orki

ng a

mon

g m

edia

org

aniz

atio

ns,

espe

cial

ly in

sup

port

of t

he a

ctiv

ities

out

lined

abo

ve•

Prof

essi

onal

org

aniz

atio

ns, m

edia

sup

port

org

aniz

atio

ns, r

egul

ator

y bo

dies

and

co

mm

unic

atio

ns m

inis

trie

s sh

ould

tog

ethe

r m

ount

an

advo

cacy

cam

paig

n fo

r th

e ad

optio

n of

com

mon

legi

slat

ion

to g

over

n th

e es

tabl

ishm

ent

of a

udio

visu

al

com

pani

es•

Prom

ote

grea

ter

and

mor

e ac

tive

part

icip

atio

n in

med

ia d

evel

opm

ent

activ

ities

am

ong

gove

rnm

enta

l and

non

-gov

ernm

enta

l reg

iona

l coo

pera

tion

bodi

es

19


Th

eme

An

alys

isP

rop

osa

lsM

edia

ow

ners

hip

• T

here

is r

ecog

nitio

n of

the

pow

er t

hat

med

ia o

wne

rs h

old

over

th

eir

inst

itutio

ns, i

nclu

ding

the

jour

nalis

ts t

hat

wor

k fo

r th

em•

To t

his

end,

the

re is

rec

ogni

tion

of t

he n

eed

for

med

ia o

wne

rs

to u

phol

d th

e hi

ghes

t le

vels

of e

thic

al c

ondu

ct, i

nclu

ding

sho

win

g re

spec

t fo

r pl

ural

ity, e

qual

ity a

nd n

on-d

iscr

imin

atio

n•

The

med

ia o

wne

rs in

the

sub

regi

on a

re fa

ced

with

pro

blem

s of

in

suffi

cien

t fin

anci

al a

nd o

ther

res

ourc

es, l

egal

and

adm

inis

trat

ive

absu

rditi

es, i

nade

quat

ely

trai

ned

staf

f, et

c•

The

med

ia a

re fa

ced

with

the

cha

lleng

e of

ado

ptin

g IC

Ts

for

the

effic

ienc

y of

the

ir p

rodu

ctio

n an

d ec

onom

ic p

erfo

rman

ce•

The

que

stio

n of

ICT

s is

cor

rela

ted

to t

hat

of t

rain

ing

or r

e-tr

aini

ng

Legi

slatio

n an

d ta

xatio

n•

Step

up

advo

cacy

for

the

Min

istr

ies

of F

inan

ce t

o de

velo

p a

pref

eren

tial t

ax

sche

me

for

med

ia c

ompa

nies

, tak

ing

into

acc

ount

suc

h is

sues

as:

(a)

the

intr

o-du

ctio

n of

a fl

at r

ate;

and

(b)

the

red

uctio

n of

cus

tom

s ta

riffs

and

sim

plify

ing

rela

ted

proc

edur

es•

Such

adv

ocac

y sh

ould

als

o ca

ll up

on t

he m

inis

trie

s of

fore

ign

affa

irs,

parl

ia-

men

ts a

nd t

he ju

dici

ary

to r

atify

and

enf

orce

suc

h in

tern

atio

nal c

onve

ntio

ns

and

prot

ocol

s as

the

Flo

renc

e C

onve

ntio

n an

d th

e N

airo

bi A

gree

men

t

Med

ia a

s bu

sines

s en

terp

rises

• C

reat

e an

d id

entif

y tr

aini

ng o

ppor

tuni

ties

for

med

ia m

anag

ers,

focu

sing

on

such

cou

rses

as

man

agin

g m

edia

as

busi

ness

ent

erpr

ises

. Thi

s ca

n be

a c

ol-

labo

rativ

e pr

ojec

t in

volv

ing

exis

ting

med

ia s

uppo

rt in

stitu

tions

, don

ors,

trai

ning

in

stitu

tions

and

oth

er s

take

hold

ers

• St

reng

then

syn

ergi

es a

mon

g m

edia

inst

itutio

ns a

nd b

uild

org

aniz

atio

nal,

advo

-ca

cy a

nd lo

bbyi

ng c

apac

ities

in t

he m

edia

New

opp

ortu

nitie

s fo

r m

edia

sus

tain

abilit

y•

Esta

blis

h a

com

mun

icat

ion

supp

ort

fund

, with

the

par

ticip

atio

n of

Min

istr

ies

of F

inan

ce a

nd C

omm

unic

atio

n, a

s w

ell a

s m

edia

com

pani

es, p

ract

ition

ers

and

dono

rs•

Such

a fu

nd c

ould

be

used

as

colla

tera

l or

guar

ante

e fo

r th

e m

edia

to

acce

ss

bank

fina

ncin

g•

Usi

ng IC

T a

nd w

eb-m

arke

ting

expe

rts,

inte

rnat

iona

l pro

ject

s an

d pl

atfo

rms,

adve

rtis

ing

com

pani

es, m

edia

pra

ctiti

oner

s an

d ot

her

stak

ehol

ders

, dev

elop

ne

w s

ervi

ces

and

port

als

to fa

cilit

ate

acce

ss t

o on

line

reso

urce

s fo

r th

e m

edia

• A

t th

e na

tiona

l lev

el, l

obby

line

min

istr

ies

in c

harg

e of

the

ICT

sec

tor

to d

esig

n IC

T p

olic

ies

to e

nabl

e th

e m

edia

acc

ess

the

Inte

rnet

and

the

Web

Com

mun

ity m

edia

• Lo

bby

line

min

istr

ies,

parl

iam

ents

, loc

al g

over

nmen

t au

thor

ities

and

reg

ulat

ory

bodi

es t

o ca

mpa

ign

for

the

elig

ibili

ty o

f com

mun

ity m

edia

to

acce

ss n

atio

nal

and

loca

l pub

lic fi

nanc

ing

Cam

paig

n fo

r co

mm

unity

med

ia in

itiat

ives

to

acce

ss a

dver

tisin

g fr

om p

ublic

en

terp

rise

s

20


Th

eme

An

alys

isP

rop

osa

lsM

edia

tra

inin

g•

Med

ia t

rain

ing

is in

crea

sing

ly im

plic

ated

in e

mer

ging

tre

nds,

such

as:

(a)

med

ia p

lura

lism

and

div

ersi

ty; (

b) t

echn

olog

ical

con

verg

ence

; (c)

re

duce

d pu

blic

fund

ing;

and

(d)

com

mer

cial

izat

ion

• T

he s

ubre

gion

’s tr

aini

ng in

stitu

tions

are

shi

ftin

g fr

om t

heor

etic

al

teac

hing

in t

he c

lass

room

to

‘act

ive

teac

hing

’. ‘A

ctiv

e te

achi

ng’ f

o-cu

ses

on t

rain

ing

in t

he fi

eld,

ena

blin

g le

arne

rs t

o ex

peri

ence

rea

lity

dire

ctly

• T

he t

rain

ing

is a

lso

emph

asiz

ing

‘mob

ility

’, to

acq

uain

t st

uden

ts w

ith

the

wid

er s

ocia

l con

text

in t

he s

ubre

gion

, suc

h as

ena

blin

g th

em t

o vi

sit

diffe

rent

cou

ntri

es in

Eco

nom

ic C

omm

unity

of W

est A

fric

an

Stat

es (

ECO

WA

S) s

o th

at t

hey

can

see

how

, for

exa

mpl

e, t

he N

ew

Part

ners

hip

for

Afr

ican

Dev

elop

men

t (N

EPA

D)

proj

ect

is b

eing

ex

peri

ence

d•

Pass

ive

or v

ertic

al t

rain

ing

met

hods

are

incr

easi

ngly

bei

ng c

hal-

leng

ed, i

n pr

efer

ence

to

thos

e th

at a

re h

oriz

onta

l and

em

pow

erin

g•

The

con

tent

of t

he t

rain

ing

is in

crea

sing

ly e

mph

asiz

ing

ICT

s, th

e et

hics

and

rig

hts

of t

he m

edia

, etc

• Tr

aini

ng in

the

sub

regi

on g

ener

ally

occ

urs

at t

hree

leve

ls, n

amel

y (a

) ba

sic

trai

ning

; (b)

sho

rt-t

erm

tra

inin

g; an

d (c

) co

mpl

emen

tary

or

spec

ializ

ed t

rain

ing

• So

me

of t

he k

ey c

halle

nges

faci

ng t

rain

ing

inst

itutio

ns c

an b

e ca

t -eg

oriz

ed a

s (a

) th

e ne

ed t

o us

e na

tiona

l lan

guag

es a

s th

e m

ediu

m

of in

stru

ctio

n as

wel

l as

of m

edia

tion;

(b)

und

er-f

undi

ng; a

nd (

c)

self-

asse

ssm

ent

(as

oppo

sed

to d

onor

-led

eval

uatio

n of

tra

inin

g pr

ogra

mm

es)

• Tr

aini

ng, i

f it

is o

ffere

d in

‘for

eign

’ lan

guag

es, t

ends

to

alie

nate

and

m

argi

naliz

e. T

here

is n

eed,

the

refo

re, f

or p

rom

otin

g th

e us

e of

na

tiona

l lan

guag

es•

As

part

of t

he ‘i

ndig

eniz

atio

n’ o

f tra

inin

g, th

ere

is n

eed

to fo

cus

on

alte

rnat

ive

form

s of

tra

inin

g, su

ch a

s th

at fo

cusi

ng o

n co

mm

unity

ra

dio

broa

dcas

ting

• Tr

aini

ng in

the

sub

regi

on is

als

o co

nten

ding

with

shi

ftin

g de

finiti

ons

of jo

urna

lism

, inc

ludi

ng t

hose

tha

t em

phas

ize

‘act

ivis

t jo

urna

lism

’

Net

wor

king

• Ta

ke s

tock

of t

he t

rain

ing

inst

itutio

ns in

the

sub

regi

on, i

n or

der

to (

a) k

now

th

e tr

aini

ng o

n of

fer;

(b)

stre

ngth

en e

xist

ing

trai

ning

inst

itutio

ns; a

nd (

c) r

atio

-na

lize

the

trai

ning

offe

ring

s•

Cre

ate

a ne

twor

k of

uni

vers

ity/a

ltern

ativ

e tr

aini

ng in

stitu

tions

, whi

ch c

an (

a)

antic

ipat

e tr

aini

ng n

eeds

, and

(b)

pro

mot

e th

e m

obili

ty o

f lec

ture

rs a

nd s

tu-

dent

s

Capa

city

-bui

ldin

g•

Inst

itutio

naliz

e an

d st

reng

then

alte

rnat

ive

trai

ning

, esp

ecia

lly t

hat

focu

sing

on

com

mun

ity m

edia

• St

reng

then

uni

vers

ity-le

vel t

rain

ing

inst

itutio

ns a

nd s

choo

ls, e

mph

asiz

ing

a st

rong

link

bet

wee

n th

eory

and

pra

ctic

e

New

med

ia tr

aini

ng•

Dev

elop

new

tra

inin

g cu

rric

ula

focu

sing

on

ICT

issu

es, i

n or

der

to a

ntic

ipat

e th

e im

pact

of I

CT

s on

the

wor

k cu

lture

of t

he m

edia

, and

the

way

s in

whi

ch

they

can

influ

ence

the

lega

l fra

mew

orks

of t

he s

ubre

gion

Qua

lity

assu

ranc

e•

Dev

elop

a s

tand

ardi

zed

cert

ifica

tion

mec

hani

sm –

at

the

regi

onal

and

con

tinen

-ta

l lev

els

– w

hich

can

hel

p in

har

mon

izin

g tr

aini

ng a

nd fa

cilit

atin

g m

obili

ty a

nd

join

t de

gree

s

21


Th

eme

An

alys

isP

rop

osa

lsM

edia

sup

port

•

As

in t

he s

outh

ern

Afr

ican

sub

regi

on, i

t is

cle

ar t

hat

Fran

coph

one

Wes

t Afr

ica

has

witn

esse

s a

plet

hora

of m

edia

sup

port

org

aniz

a-tio

ns, s

peci

aliz

ing

in d

iffer

ent

area

s, su

ch a

s (a

) ad

voca

cy fo

r le

gal

and

inst

itutio

nal r

efor

ms

for

med

ia d

evel

opm

ent;

(b)

prom

otio

n of

th

e ri

ghts

of m

inor

ities

; (c)

sup

port

for

trai

ning

; (d)

pro

duct

ion

and

broa

dcas

ting

of r

adio

pro

gram

mes

; and

(e)

est

ablis

hmen

t of

alte

rna-

tive

med

ia s

truc

ture

s, su

ch a

s co

mm

unity

rad

io•

It is

als

o cl

ear

that

suc

h m

edia

sup

port

age

ncie

s ar

e in

crea

sing

ly

unde

r pr

essu

re t

o su

rviv

e, r

esul

ting

in a

n un

heal

thy

com

petit

ive

clim

ate.

Oth

er p

robl

ems

faci

ng t

he s

ecto

r co

uld

be li

sted

as:

(a)

the

lack

of r

atio

naliz

atio

n of

sup

port

act

iviti

es; (

b) in

suffi

cien

t tr

ansp

ar-

ency

and

acc

ount

abili

ty; a

nd (

c) in

adeq

uate

hum

an r

esou

rces

• Bu

t th

ere

is n

eed

to a

sses

s th

e ef

ficac

y of

med

ia s

uppo

rt in

ter

ms

of (

a) s

ettin

g cl

ear

and

mea

sura

ble

obje

ctiv

es fo

r m

edia

dev

elop

-m

ent;

(b)

adop

ting

tran

spar

ent

oper

atin

g ru

les;

(c)

coop

erat

ion

with

ot

her

agen

cies

; and

(d)

enc

oura

ging

the

Afr

ican

pri

vate

sec

tor

to

inve

st in

the

med

ia•

An

impo

rtan

t is

sue

iden

tified

con

cern

s th

e ne

ed t

o in

volv

e ci

vil

soci

ety

orga

niza

tions

(C

SOs)

in m

edia

dev

elop

men

t ac

tiviti

es

Net

wor

king

• C

reat

e a

regu

lar,

tran

spar

ent

and

part

icip

ator

y co

nsul

tatio

n fr

amew

ork

for

in-

tern

atio

nal d

onor

s an

d m

edia

sup

port

org

aniz

atio

ns in

Afr

ica

– th

is c

ould

hol

d an

ann

ual m

edia

sup

port

foru

m, p

refe

rabl

y fa

cilit

ated

by

UN

ECA

. The

foru

m

coul

d ha

ve a

web

site

• D

evel

op a

con

sulta

tion

and

advo

cacy

fram

ewor

k fo

r A

fric

an m

edia

sup

port

ag

enci

es

Med

ia n

etw

orki

ng a

nd fi

nanc

ing

• C

reat

e a

fund

for

the

med

ia, w

hich

cou

ld fa

cilit

ate,

am

ong

othe

r th

ings

, (a)

on

line

appl

icat

ions

for

fund

ing

and

publ

ish

resu

lts o

nlin

e; (

b) a

new

slet

ter;

and

(c)

othe

r in

form

atio

n se

rvic

es•

Und

erta

ke a

n as

sess

men

t of

the

cap

acity

of n

atio

nal m

edia

sup

port

str

uctu

res,

and

advo

cate

for

thei

r im

prov

emen

t, w

here

nec

essa

ry

Con

tent

pro

duct

ion

• T

he c

onsu

ltant

s al

so fo

cuse

d on

the

spe

cific

issu

e of

sup

port

ing

the

prod

uctio

n, d

isse

min

atio

n an

d sh

arin

g of

pub

lic in

tere

st c

onte

ntT

he fo

llow

ing

cons

titut

ed c

oncr

ete

prop

osal

s fo

r su

ppor

ting

the

prod

uctio

n, d

is-

sem

inat

ion

and

shar

ing

of p

ublic

inte

rest

con

tent

:•

By u

sing

med

ia r

esea

rch

cent

res/

netw

orks

, res

earc

h an

d do

cum

ent

the

fol -

low

ing:

(a) A

fric

an c

onte

nt p

rodu

cers

;

(

b) in

vent

ory

of n

atio

nal-l

angu

age

med

ia; a

nd (

c) m

edia

res

earc

h in

stitu

tions

• St

imul

ate

grea

ter

cont

ent

prod

uctio

n am

ong

publ

ic a

nd p

riva

te m

edia

, as

wel

l as

am

ong

othe

r co

nten

t pr

oduc

ers,

by

(a)

mai

ntai

ning

qua

lity

imag

e da

taba

nks;

(b)

advo

catin

g fo

r co

oper

atio

n be

twee

n pr

oduc

ers;

(c)

prod

uc-

ing

qual

ity r

adio

pro

gram

mes

dat

aban

k; (

d) c

apac

ity-b

uild

ing;

(e)

esta

blis

hing

a

natio

nal-l

angu

age

cont

ent

data

bank

; and

(f)

adv

ocat

ing

for

appr

opri

ate

lega

l pr

ovis

ions

to

gove

rn li

ngui

stic

quo

tas,

etc

22


3.1.

3 A

nglo

pho

ne W

est A

fric

a

Tabl

e 4:

Ang

lop

hone

Wes

t Afr

ican

reg

iona

l con

sult

atio

n: k

ey fi

ndin

gs

Th

eme

An

alys

isP

rop

osa

lsPr

ess

free

dom

• It

is c

lear

from

the

find

ings

tha

t pr

ess

free

dom

is u

nder

th

reat

in t

he s

ubre

gion

. Mos

t le

gisl

atio

n is

not

med

ia-f

rien

d-ly,

pro

mpt

ing

the

cons

ulta

nts

to c

all f

or: (

a) a

re-

enfo

rcin

g of

adv

ocac

y fo

r th

e pr

omot

ion

of fr

eedo

m o

f inf

orm

atio

n re

gim

es g

ener

ally

; (b)

incr

ease

d co

llabo

ratio

n be

twee

n ci

vil s

ocie

ty o

rgan

izat

ions

to

advo

cate

for

the

repe

al o

f le

gisl

atio

n th

at u

nder

min

es t

he a

pplic

atio

n of

con

stitu

tiona

l pr

ovis

ions

; and

(c)

str

engt

hene

d re

gula

tory

bod

ies

and

jour

nalis

t as

soci

atio

ns w

ith e

ffect

ive

peer

rev

iew

com

mit-

tees

to

ensu

re t

hat

prac

titio

ners

adh

ere

stri

ctly

to

code

s of

et

hics

• In

ter

ms

of t

he b

road

er c

onte

xt, i

t is

cle

ar t

hat

the

soci

o-po

litic

al p

robl

ems

aris

ing

from

the

his

tori

cal s

tatu

s of

st

ate-

cont

rol/m

onop

oly

of m

edia

, an

auth

orita

rian

out

look

to

gov

erna

nce,

gov

ernm

ents

’ mis

trus

t of

pri

vate

med

ia a

nd

fear

of i

nves

tors

bei

ng s

lapp

ed w

ith li

bel/d

efam

atio

n su

its,

have

als

o co

ntri

bute

d to

the

slo

w g

row

th o

f the

med

ia•

The

se p

robl

ems,

coup

led

with

pol

itica

l ins

tabi

lity

and

loss

of

inve

stm

ent,

have

mad

e th

e m

edia

indu

stry

ver

y un

at-

trac

tive

• R

estr

ictio

ns im

pose

d ov

er t

he s

ize

of t

rans

mitt

ers,

to-

geth

er w

ith c

umbe

rsom

e pr

oces

ses

for

regi

stra

tion

and

acqu

isiti

on o

f bro

adca

st li

cenc

es a

nd fr

eque

ncie

s, in

hibi

t th

e ef

fect

ive

reac

h of

med

ia•

Add

ed t

o th

is is

the

pro

hibi

tive

cost

of h

igh-

tech

equ

ip-

men

t co

min

g in

from

the

adv

ance

d co

untr

ies,

crea

ting

an

uncl

ear

futu

re fo

r th

e de

velo

pmen

t of

the

med

ia in

the

su

breg

ion

• M

edia

ow

ners

thu

s ha

ve g

reat

diffi

culty

in k

eepi

ng u

p w

ith

the

rate

at

whi

ch n

ew p

rodu

cts

are

bein

g m

anuf

actu

red

• A

fric

an m

edia

are

furt

her

wea

kene

d by

inad

equa

te h

uman

re

sour

ces.

The

y ar

e ch

alle

nged

by

the

lack

of a

dequ

ate

num

bers

of t

rain

ed p

erso

ns, i

nclu

ding

on-

air

tale

nt a

s w

ell

as t

echn

ical

and

sup

port

sta

ff•

The

hig

h in

cide

nce

of p

oach

ing,

even

by

the

BBC

, als

o af

-fe

cts

the

med

ia in

dust

ry•

Jour

nalis

ts in

the

pri

vate

med

ia in

par

ticul

ar t

end

to le

ave

for

othe

r ra

dio

stat

ions

aft

er r

ecei

ving

ext

ensi

ve t

rain

ing

from

the

sta

te b

road

cast

er

Polic

y•

Esta

blis

h in

depe

nden

t an

d au

tono

mou

s re

gula

tory

mec

hani

sms

devo

id o

f pol

itica

l int

erfe

r-en

ce a

nd s

uppo

rted

thr

ough

par

liam

enta

ry a

ppro

pria

tions

• A

dvoc

ate

for

and

ensu

re t

he in

stitu

tion

of t

rans

pare

nt d

ecis

ion-

mak

ing

proc

esse

s fo

r lic

ens-

ing,

rene

wal

of l

icen

ces

and

freq

uenc

y al

loca

tion

• Su

ppor

t av

aila

ble

judi

cial

rev

iew

in c

ases

whe

re a

pplic

atio

ns fo

r lic

ence

s ar

e re

ject

ed o

r re

voke

d

Ow

ners

hip

• C

ampa

ign

for

stat

e-ow

ned

broa

dcas

t m

edia

to

oper

ate

with

in a

pub

lic s

ervi

ce r

emit,

with

in

depe

nden

t go

vern

ing

boar

ds w

hose

edi

tori

al fu

nctio

ns a

re in

sula

ted

from

pol

itica

l int

erfe

r-en

ce. S

tate

par

ticip

atio

n in

the

pri

nt m

edia

sec

tor

shou

ld in

no

way

und

erm

ine

the

free

dom

of

exp

ress

ion

prov

isio

ns in

nat

iona

l con

stitu

tions

• Pr

ivat

e in

tere

sts

and

conc

erns

sho

uld

be a

llow

ed t

o es

tabl

ish

med

ia o

rgan

izat

ions

as

part

of

the

proc

ess

of p

rom

otin

g di

vers

ity a

nd p

lura

lism

in t

he s

ourc

es o

f inf

orm

atio

n av

aila

ble

to

citiz

ens

• In

stitu

tions

offe

ring

med

ia a

nd jo

urna

lism

stu

dies

, suc

h as

uni

vers

ities

, sho

uld

be e

ncou

rage

d an

d al

low

ed t

o ow

n an

d op

erat

e m

edia

org

aniz

atio

ns fo

r th

e pu

rpos

e of

tra

inin

g pr

ospe

ctiv

e jo

urna

lists

• C

omm

unity

med

ia (

part

icul

arly

rad

io)

shou

ld b

e en

cour

aged

and

ass

iste

d to

flou

rish

. Com

-m

unity

med

ia m

ay s

erve

a g

eogr

aphi

cal c

omm

unity

, esp

ecia

lly in

poo

r/ru

ral c

omm

uniti

es, o

r pr

omot

e sp

ecifi

c co

mm

unity

inte

rest

s su

ch a

s fa

rmin

g co

mm

uniti

es, y

outh

gro

ups,

wom

en’s

orga

niza

tions

, etc

Regu

latio

n•

The

man

date

s of

reg

ulat

ory

bodi

es s

houl

d be

ext

ende

d to

cov

er t

he t

echn

ical

asp

ects

as

wel

l as

cont

ent

of b

road

cast

med

ia. I

n ad

ditio

n th

ey m

ay r

equi

re t

he p

rint

med

ia t

o re

gist

er

but

this

sho

uld

not

be fo

r th

e pu

rpos

e of

lice

nsin

g or

per

mitt

ing

them

to

oper

ate

• Ex

istin

g an

ti-m

edia

law

s an

d ot

her

piec

es o

f leg

isla

tion

whi

ch in

hibi

t m

edia

free

dom

and

in

depe

nden

ce s

houl

d be

rev

iew

ed o

r re

peal

ed. A

ll st

akeh

olde

rs s

houl

d be

invo

lved

and

co

nsul

ted

in m

edia

law

ref

orm

pro

cess

es•

Rev

iew

all

med

ia la

ws

in o

rder

to

rem

ove

all p

enal

pro

visi

ons

for

defa

mat

ion,

fals

e pu

blic

a -tio

n, s

editi

on, i

ncite

men

t, in

sult

to p

oliti

cal a

utho

ritie

s, et

c•

Dis

cour

age

stat

e m

onop

olie

s in

pri

nt a

nd b

road

cast

med

ia•

Allo

w fo

r eq

uita

ble

allo

catio

n of

freq

uenc

ies

betw

een

stat

e an

d pr

ivat

ely

owne

d m

edia

to

chec

k st

ate

dom

inat

ion

of t

he s

ecto

r•

Publ

ic s

ervi

ce b

road

cast

ers

shou

ld s

erve

the

com

mun

ity a

t la

rge

and

be a

cces

sibl

e to

all

sect

ors

of s

ocie

ty

23


Th

eme

An

alys

isP

rop

osa

ls•

The

med

ia s

houl

d in

pri

ncip

le b

e se

lf-re

gula

tory

and

sho

uld

put

in p

lace

cod

es o

f con

duct

w

ith e

ffect

ive

enfo

rcem

ent

mec

hani

sms

• M

edia

pro

fess

iona

l bod

ies

or a

ssoc

iatio

ns s

houl

d be

res

pons

ible

for

regi

ster

ing

thei

r m

em-

bers

. Lac

k of

reg

istr

atio

n on

the

par

t of

an

indi

vidu

al jo

urna

list

shou

ld n

ot in

hibi

t hi

s/he

r pr

actic

e of

the

pro

fess

ion

Advo

cacy

• A

dvoc

acy

shou

ld b

e un

dert

aken

to

enco

urag

e an

d pr

essu

re g

over

nmen

ts a

nd s

take

hold

ers

to im

plem

ent

thes

e re

com

men

datio

ns a

t na

tiona

l and

reg

iona

l lev

els

• M

edia

inst

itutio

ns, a

ssoc

iatio

ns a

nd m

edia

sup

port

org

aniz

atio

ns s

houl

d be

enc

oura

ged

to

netw

ork

acro

ss n

atio

nal b

orde

rs a

nd a

t re

gion

al le

vels

for

info

rmat

ion

shar

ing

and

exch

ange

of

exp

erie

nces

in b

est

prac

tices

Fina

ncia

l sus

-ta

inab

ility

•

Con

cern

ing

how

to

achi

eve

finan

cial

sus

tain

abili

ty fo

r th

e m

edia

indu

stry

, par

ticip

ants

dre

w o

n ex

peri

ence

s fr

om

Sier

ra L

eone

, Nig

eria

, Gha

na a

nd L

iber

ia t

o hi

ghlig

ht r

ecur

-ri

ng p

robl

ems

for

the

med

ia. T

hese

incl

ude:

(a)

a la

ck o

f ac

cess

to

capi

tal;

(b)

poor

fina

ncia

l pra

ctic

es o

n th

e pa

rt o

f m

edia

org

aniz

atio

ns; a

nd (

c) a

n un

stab

le b

usin

ess

envi

ron-

men

t

Fina

ncia

l man

agem

ent t

rain

ing

• D

esig

n ba

sic

skill

s tr

aini

ng in

wri

ting

busi

ness

pla

ns, f

orm

ulat

ing

visi

ons

and

prop

osal

wri

ting

• En

cour

age

univ

ersi

ty fa

culti

es a

nd o

ther

tra

inin

g in

stitu

tions

to

inve

st in

cou

rses

in m

edia

m

anag

emen

t, w

hile

ack

now

ledg

ing

that

the

re a

re o

ther

spe

cial

ized

ski

lls t

hat

need

to

be

lear

ned

• M

edia

dev

elop

men

t or

gani

zatio

ns, b

oth

natio

nal a

nd in

tern

atio

nal,

mus

t ad

vise

on

finan

cial

/st

rate

gic

plan

ning

and

mon

itori

ng a

ccou

ntab

ility

and

inco

rpor

ate

this

into

the

ir fi

eldw

ork

and

capa

city

-bui

ldin

g pr

ogra

mm

es•

Lobb

y fo

r m

edia

ow

ners

to

acce

ss c

apita

l (ba

nk lo

ans)

by

mak

ing

colla

tera

l pro

cedu

res

mor

e fle

xibl

e•

Enco

urag

e pr

ess

unio

ns t

o ow

n pr

intin

g pr

esse

s to

hel

p pu

blis

hers

pri

nt a

t lo

wer

cos

ts•

Dis

cour

age

med

ia o

wne

rs fr

om o

ver-

depe

nden

ce o

n ad

vert

isin

g re

venu

e•

Med

ia d

evel

opm

ent

loan

sch

emes

mus

t be

inst

itute

d to

ass

ist

med

ia o

wne

rs w

ith lo

ans

on

mor

e fle

xibl

e te

rms

24


Th

eme

An

alys

isP

rop

osa

lsM

edia

tra

inin

g•

The

re is

rec

ogni

tion

that

tra

inin

g sh

ould

be

stru

ctur

ed in

su

ch a

way

tha

t it

can

mee

t th

e ch

alle

nges

pos

ed b

y th

e gr

owin

g ne

eds

of c

urre

nt m

edia

tra

inin

g pr

actic

es•

The

re is

cla

rity

abo

ut t

he t

rain

ing

need

s of

Wes

t Afr

ican

m

edia

; wha

t ex

istin

g m

edia

inst

itutio

ns a

re d

oing

; and

the

ne

w w

ays

of t

rain

ing

that

cou

ld b

e in

itiat

ed•

The

tra

inin

g ne

eds

of m

edia

in W

est A

fric

a in

clud

e: in

culc

at-

ing

new

att

itude

s; w

ell e

quip

ped

scho

ols

to fa

cilit

ate

the

trai

ning

of W

est A

fric

an jo

urna

lists

; the

nee

d fo

r ne

w m

an-

agem

ent

polic

ies;

acce

ss t

o IC

Ts;

and

a ba

lanc

e be

twee

n th

eory

and

pra

ctic

e•

Med

ia t

rain

ing

is fa

ced

with

sev

eral

pro

blem

s. T

hese

incl

ude

the

follo

win

g: (a

) lo

w s

alar

ies;

(b)

post

-con

flict

situ

atio

ns in

Si

erra

Leo

ne a

nd L

iber

ia, w

here

tra

inin

g ce

ased

to

exis

t fo

r m

ore

than

a d

ecad

e, r

esul

ting

in v

irtu

ally

no

oppo

rtun

ity

for

fully

est

ablis

hed

trai

ning

inst

itutio

ns; (

c) la

ck o

f fac

ilitie

s an

d qu

alifi

ed t

each

ers

due

to p

oor

fund

ing;

(d)

limite

d re

sour

ces

and

faci

litie

s in

som

e po

st-s

econ

dary

inst

itu-

tions

and

uni

vers

ities

; and

(e)

litt

le o

r no

mon

ey fo

r st

aff

refr

eshe

r tr

aini

ng

Net

wor

king

• Es

tabl

ishm

ent

of a

foca

l poi

nt fo

r th

e co

ordi

natio

n of

med

ia a

nd c

omm

unic

atio

n tr

aini

ng,

such

as

the

Afr

ican

Cou

ncil

on C

omm

unic

atio

n Ed

ucat

ion

(AC

CE)

.•

Sett

ing

up o

f a W

est A

fric

an d

atab

ase

for

trai

ners

and

tra

inin

g in

stitu

tions

Fund

ing

• Es

tabl

ishi

ng a

med

ia t

rust

fund

with

the

obj

ectiv

es o

f: (a

) pr

ovid

ing

scho

lars

hips

for

med

ia

prac

titio

ners

in e

xist

ing

med

ia in

stitu

tions

; and

(b)

em

ploy

ing

mor

e A

fric

an m

edia

tra

iner

s to

ad

dres

s th

e is

sue

of la

ck o

f tra

ined

hum

an p

ower

• U

se t

he t

rust

fund

for

the

cont

inuo

us e

xcha

nge

of t

rain

ing

prog

ram

mes

bet

wee

n W

est

Afr

ican

sch

olar

s an

d jo

urna

lists

Curr

icul

um r

evie

w•

A r

evie

w o

f the

cur

ricu

la o

f Wes

t Afr

ican

med

ia in

stitu

tions

with

em

phas

is o

n co

nten

t an

d et

hica

l iss

ues

• A

nee

ds a

sses

smen

t sh

ould

be

carr

ied

out

to k

now

the

str

engt

hs a

nd w

eakn

esse

s of

exi

st-

ing

med

ia in

stitu

tions

• T

here

sho

uld

be b

alan

ce b

etw

een

theo

ry a

nd p

ract

ice

• G

ende

r m

ust

be in

corp

orat

ed in

to in

stitu

tiona

l cur

ricu

la, e

spec

ially

how

to

repr

esen

t ge

n-de

r in

med

ia c

onte

nt

Indu

stry

-trai

ning

link

ages

• Es

tabl

ishi

ng a

link

bet

wee

n pr

ofes

sion

al b

odie

s an

d tr

aini

ng in

stitu

tions

to

ensu

re h

igh

stan

-da

rds

in t

he p

rofe

ssio

n

Edito

rial

st

anda

rds

and

capa

city

dev

el-

opm

ent

• Po

or e

dito

rial

sta

ndar

ds a

nd lo

w c

apac

ity d

evel

opm

ent

have

adv

erse

ly a

ffect

ed p

rofe

ssio

nal s

tand

ards

in r

ecen

t tim

es. T

his

is d

ue t

o di

ffere

nt r

easo

ns, s

ome

of w

hich

are

ci

ted

here

:•

The

que

stio

n of

cen

sors

hip

as w

ell a

s ad

here

nce

to p

rofe

s -si

onal

eth

ics

feat

ures

in t

his

equa

tion

• T

here

is a

wea

k hu

man

res

ourc

e ba

se in

var

ious

med

ia

hous

es, l

eadi

ng t

o th

e la

ck o

f pro

fess

iona

lism

• W

hile

gra

duat

es fr

om c

erta

in in

stitu

tions

whi

ch la

ck w

ell-

trai

ned

staf

f and

acc

redi

tatio

n su

dden

ly e

mer

ge a

s ed

itors

in

pri

vate

med

ia h

ouse

s, so

me

radi

o st

atio

ns a

lso

enga

ge

peop

le w

ith n

o tr

aini

ng w

hats

oeve

r as

pre

sent

ers

• T

here

are

wea

k go

vern

ance

str

uctu

res

in m

ost

med

ia

hous

es, r

esul

ting

in p

oor

deci

sion

-mak

ing

abou

t pr

ofes

-si

onal

issu

es

Educ

atio

n, tr

aini

ng a

nd r

esea

rch

• Po

or e

thic

al s

tand

ards

sho

uld

be a

ddre

ssed

by

repr

oduc

ing

hand

book

s on

eth

ics

and

mak

ing

them

ava

ilabl

e to

all

jour

nalis

ts•

Trai

ning

sho

uld

be g

iven

to

all s

taff

of m

edia

inst

itutio

ns fo

r th

em t

o ad

here

to

prof

essi

onal

co

des

of e

thic

s•

Mor

e re

sear

ch a

nd in

vest

igat

ive

repo

rtin

g sh

ould

be

mad

e re

gula

r fo

r va

riou

s in

stitu

tions

as

mos

t st

orie

s an

d ar

ticle

s ar

e sh

allo

w•

Med

ia o

utle

ts m

ust

have

mor

e in

-hou

se t

rain

ing

as e

dito

rial

mee

tings

are

rar

e or

non

-exi

s -te

nt a

nd a

ffect

pro

fess

iona

lism

Prof

essio

nal n

etw

orki

ng•

The

re s

houl

d be

uni

ty a

nd r

econ

cilia

tion

amon

g pr

ofes

sion

al b

odie

s w

hich

are

impo

rtan

t to

st

reng

then

col

labo

ratio

n•

Gre

ater

att

entio

n m

ust

be p

aid

to n

ewsr

oom

man

agem

ent,

whi

ch m

ight

res

ult

in m

anag

ers

reco

gniz

ing

oppo

rtun

ities

for

stra

tegi

c al

lianc

es

25


Th

eme

An

alys

isP

rop

osa

lsM

edia

sup

port

• T

here

are

key

‘leg

itim

acy’

que

stio

ns fa

cing

the

med

ia s

up-

port

sec

tor:

(a) D

o m

edia

sup

port

org

aniz

atio

ns h

ave

a co

nstit

uenc

y?(b

) How

muc

h in

volv

emen

t do

the

ir b

enefi

ciar

ies

have

in p

lan-

ning

, im

plem

entin

g an

d ev

alua

ting

proj

ects

dev

elop

ed fo

r th

eir

bene

fit?

(c) A

re t

hey

acco

unta

ble,

and

to

who

m?

Is it

the

don

ors,

the

publ

ic, g

over

nmen

t or

the

med

ia o

wne

rs?

• A

part

from

the

se, o

ther

pro

blem

s co

me

to t

he fo

re,

nam

ely:

• In

man

y ca

ses

thei

r w

ork

has

eith

er li

ttle

or

no im

pact

. It

is

alm

ost

alw

ays

the

case

tha

t th

e tr

aini

ng g

iven

to

jour

nalis

ts

by s

ome

inte

rnat

iona

l med

ia s

uppo

rt o

rgan

izat

ions

cou

ld

have

bee

n do

ne b

y ex

pert

s in

Afr

ica

• Pr

ojec

ts a

re n

ot w

orka

ble

beca

use

the

dono

r ag

enci

es/

fund

ing

orga

niza

tions

do

not

unde

rsta

nd t

he p

oliti

cal t

er-

rain

of t

hose

cou

ntri

es in

volv

ed•

Som

e ag

enci

es p

rovi

de e

quip

men

t to

med

ia h

ouse

s, bu

t do

no

t gi

ve t

rain

ing

on h

ow t

o op

erat

e th

is s

tate

-of–

the-

art

equi

pmen

t•

The

re is

the

pro

blem

of t

he ‘t

yran

ny’ o

f don

ors.

Mos

t of

ten,

th

e ex

pert

s se

nt t

o un

dert

ake

the

trai

ning

are

foun

d to

be

inex

peri

ence

d in

tern

s•

The

re is

the

pro

blem

of d

uplic

atio

n of

func

tions

• T

here

is la

ck o

f mon

itori

ng a

nd e

valu

atio

n on

the

par

t of

do

nors

• T

he m

edia

indu

stry

is in

capa

cita

ted

as a

res

ult

of la

ck o

f ow

n fin

anci

ng

Skills

tran

sfer

• Su

ppor

t th

e tr

ansf

er o

f ski

lls in

diff

eren

t ar

eas

and

sect

ors

of m

edia

pra

ctic

e, s

uch

as e

dito

-ri

al, b

usin

ess

man

agem

ent

and

tech

nica

l ski

lls, t

hrou

gh o

rgan

izin

g sh

ort-

term

and

med

ium

-te

rm t

rain

ing

prog

ram

mes

• Pr

ovis

ion

of e

quip

men

t to

pri

nt a

nd b

road

cast

med

ia, p

artic

ular

ly c

omm

unity

rad

io

Rese

arch

• Pr

ovis

ion

of q

ualit

ativ

e re

sear

ch t

o su

ppor

t th

e w

ork

of t

he m

edia

and

med

ia d

ecis

ion-

mak

-in

g (s

yste

mat

ic m

edia

mon

itori

ng, b

asel

ine

rese

arch

, med

ia m

appi

ng, a

udie

nce

rese

arch

, etc

.)

Lega

l def

ence

and

wel

fare

•

Ass

ista

nce

to m

edia

and

med

ia p

rofe

ssio

nals

und

er a

ttac

k (e

.g. l

egal

ass

ista

nce

and

defe

nce,

m

ater

ial a

ssis

tanc

e, m

edic

al a

ssis

tanc

e, s

afe

have

ns, e

tc.)

• A

ddre

ssin

g w

elfa

re is

sues

and

con

ditio

ns o

f wor

k of

med

ia p

rofe

ssio

nals

(pa

rtic

ular

ly p

ro-

fess

iona

l bod

ies,

unio

ns a

nd a

ssoc

iatio

ns)

Fund

ing

• Pr

ovis

ion

of a

cces

s to

cap

ital f

or m

edia

org

aniz

atio

ns (

e.g.

MD

LF, S

AM

DEF

)

26


3.1.

4 E

aste

rn A

fric

a

Tabl

e 5:

Eas

tern

Afr

ican

reg

iona

l con

sult

atio

n: k

ey fi

ndin

gs

Th

eme

An

alys

isP

rop

osa

lsM

edia

pra

ctic

e•

Med

ia c

ounc

ils a

re e

ffect

ive

in s

ome

coun

trie

s an

d ar

e ad

dres

sing

so

me

of t

he p

robl

ems

of m

edia

pra

ctic

e by

pla

ying

a s

elf-

regu

lato

ry

role

. Thi

s is

so

in T

anza

nia,

Ken

ya a

nd U

gand

a, fo

r ex

ampl

e•

Som

alia

has

see

n th

e es

tabl

ishm

ent

of a

wom

en’s

win

g w

ithin

the

Na-

tiona

l Uni

on o

f Som

ali J

ourn

alis

ts (

NU

SJ).

NU

SJ h

as a

lso

unde

rtak

en

mee

tings

with

med

ia m

anag

ers

to d

iscu

ss t

he h

aras

smen

t of

wom

en

jour

nalis

ts•

On

med

ia li

tera

cy, a

d ho

c tr

aini

ng p

rogr

amm

es a

re im

plem

ente

d by

som

e m

edia

org

aniz

atio

ns, N

GO

s an

d ot

her

orga

niza

tions

to

sens

itize

the

pub

lic o

n ho

w t

he m

edia

wor

ks. T

his

is s

een

as c

ritic

al

in e

radi

catin

g co

rrup

tion

with

in m

edia

• T

here

are

pro

gram

mes

to

sens

itize

jour

nalis

ts o

n ge

nder

-sen

sitiv

e re

port

ing

• M

edia

wom

en’s

asso

ciat

ions

(T

he T

anza

nia

Med

ia W

omen

’s A

ssoc

ia-

tion

[TA

MW

A],

Ass

ocia

tion

of M

edia

Wom

en in

Ken

ya [

AM

WIK

], an

d th

e U

gand

a M

edia

Wom

en’s

Ass

ocia

tion

[UM

WA

]) a

ct a

s co

n-te

nt r

efer

ence

poi

nts

for

the

med

ia o

n w

omen

sou

rces

of n

ews

and

info

rmat

ion

• A

str

ong

exch

ange

pro

gram

me

betw

een

the

med

ia w

omen

’s as

soci

a -tio

ns in

the

reg

ion

exis

ts a

nd is

now

dev

elop

ing

join

t pr

ogra

mm

es•

The

re a

re n

ow w

eekl

y pu

ll-ou

t se

ctio

ns o

n w

omen

’s is

sues

in m

ajor

ne

wsp

aper

s, su

ch a

s N

ew V

isio

n an

d T

he O

ther

Voi

ce b

y U

MW

A in

U

gand

a•

The

re is

sen

sitiz

atio

n of

the

pol

ice

on h

andl

ing

sexu

al a

buse

cas

es

invo

lvin

g w

omen

• H

uman

res

ourc

e m

anua

ls, i

nclu

ding

wri

tten

sex

ual h

aras

smen

t po

li -ci

es, a

re a

vaila

ble

in U

gand

an m

edia

hou

ses

and

are

bein

g ap

plie

d•

The

re a

re c

lear

ly s

ome

gaps

. The

se in

clud

e th

e fa

ct t

hat:

(a)

cultu

ral

prac

tices

and

law

s in

som

e co

untr

ies

wor

k ag

ains

t w

omen

; (b)

failu

re

by t

he m

edia

to

impl

emen

t th

e hu

man

res

ourc

e an

d se

xual

har

ass-

men

t po

licie

s ev

en w

here

the

se e

xist

; and

(c)

the

re a

re n

o m

inim

um

wag

es in

som

e co

untr

ies

Prio

rity

area

s fo

r in

terv

entio

n•

Enri

ch h

uman

res

ourc

e m

anua

ls d

raw

ing

on la

bour

and

hum

an r

ight

s la

ws

to

mak

e th

em b

indi

ng a

nd e

nsur

e fu

ll an

d eq

ual p

artic

ipat

ion

by w

omen

at

all

leve

ls o

f med

ia p

ract

ice.

Suc

h m

anua

ls s

houl

d in

clud

e se

xual

and

rep

rodu

ctiv

e ri

ghts

of w

omen

jour

nalis

ts•

Mor

e ef

fort

sho

uld

be m

ade

to m

ains

trea

m g

ende

r in

med

ia p

ract

ice

• El

evat

e th

e m

edia

pro

fess

ion

so t

hat

it ca

n re

ceiv

e pr

ofes

sion

al r

ecog

nitio

n•

Set

guid

elin

es o

n et

hics

and

wag

es•

Esta

blis

h a

subr

egio

nal c

entr

e of

med

ia e

xcel

lenc

e ow

ned

by jo

urna

lists

and

go

vern

ed b

y a

body

of p

eopl

e of

goo

d st

andi

ng. T

he c

entr

e w

ill (

a) o

ffer

lega

l pr

otec

tion

to jo

urna

lists

; (b)

ser

ve a

s a

mod

el fo

r ot

her

cent

res

at n

atio

nal

leve

l; (c

) se

rve

as a

wat

chdo

g; an

d (d

) in

corp

orat

e a

trai

ning

and

res

earc

h co

mpo

nent

to

prod

uce

Afr

ican

con

tent

for

jour

nalis

ts a

nd t

rain

ing

inst

itutio

ns

2�


Th

eme

An

alys

isP

rop

osa

lsTr

aini

ng a

nd r

e-se

arch

•

Med

ia t

rain

ing

and

educ

atio

n is

offe

red

at d

iffer

ent

leve

ls: (

a) u

nive

r -si

ty d

egre

e; (

b) c

ertifi

cate

and

dip

lom

a tr

aini

ng; a

nd (

c) N

GO

-fac

ili-

tate

d tr

aini

ng•

The

re a

re a

lso

som

e co

urse

s ab

road

, whi

ch in

clud

e: (

a) M

id-c

aree

r tr

aini

ng c

entr

es; a

nd (

b) In

-hou

se t

rain

ing

prog

ram

mes

(e.

g. BB

C)

• O

bvio

us g

aps

incl

ude

the

follo

win

g: (a

) Too

muc

h em

phas

is o

n th

eory

in

edu

catio

n in

stitu

tions

and

too

litt

le h

ands

-on

skill

s in

mos

t, if

not

all i

nstit

utio

ns; (

b) L

ack

of a

ccre

dita

tion.

A m

echa

nism

is n

eede

d to

asc

erta

in t

he q

ualit

y of

tra

inin

g at

all

leve

ls; (

c) C

once

ntra

tion

of t

rain

ing

and

educ

atio

n ce

ntre

s in

urb

an a

reas

, lim

iting

acc

ess

to

trai

ning

for

rura

l jou

rnal

ists

; (d)

Litt

le r

ecog

nitio

n of

the

impe

rativ

e of

tec

hnol

ogic

al c

onve

rgen

ce; a

nd (

e) A

bsen

ce o

f mid

-car

eer

trai

ning

ce

ntre

s bo

th a

t un

iver

sitie

s an

d el

sew

here

Qua

lity

assu

ranc

e•

Esta

blis

h an

acc

redi

tatio

n sy

stem

at

the

natio

nal l

evel

tha

t w

ould

, am

ong

othe

r th

ings

, rev

iew

cur

ricu

lum

and

ens

ure

trai

ning

and

edu

catio

n st

anda

rds

• C

urri

culu

m c

onte

nt s

houl

d in

corp

orat

e co

mm

unity

jour

nalis

m/p

artic

ipat

ory

jour

nalis

m a

nd d

evel

opm

ent

com

mun

icat

ion

Net

wor

king

• Pr

omot

e gr

eate

r ne

twor

king

reg

iona

lly. S

ome

med

ia t

rain

ing

inst

itutio

ns a

re

netw

orki

ng w

ith S

outh

Afr

ican

and

oth

er in

stitu

tions

yet

the

y ha

ve n

o lin

ks

with

inst

itutio

ns w

ithin

the

Eas

tern

Afr

ican

sub

regi

on•

Stre

ngth

en in

ter-

univ

ersi

ty n

etw

orki

ng fo

r co

llabo

ratio

n on

res

earc

h an

d tr

aini

ng

Med

ia li

tera

cy•

Intr

oduc

e m

edia

lite

racy

into

hig

h sc

hool

s to

stim

ulat

e in

tere

st in

med

ia a

nd

jour

nalis

m a

mon

g th

e po

pula

tion

Info

rmal

trai

ning

• Ex

pand

mid

-car

eer

trai

ning

opp

ortu

nitie

s•

Ensu

re m

echa

nism

s fo

r jo

urna

lists

to

acce

ss t

rain

ing

at le

vels

oth

er t

han

ter -

tiary

inst

itutio

ns•

Ass

ist

med

ia in

rur

al a

reas

to

harn

ess

tech

nolo

gies

Rese

arch

• Es

tabl

ish

trai

ning

nee

ds o

f rur

al jo

urna

lists

• In

clud

e di

vers

ity a

s a

core

issu

e in

tra

inin

g•

Expa

nd q

ualit

y an

d th

e qu

antit

y of

med

ia r

esea

rch

on t

he c

ontin

ent

• M

onito

r tr

ends

in c

onte

nt•

Rev

ive

acad

emic

med

ia jo

urna

ls s

uch

as t

he A

fric

an M

edia

Rev

iew

of t

he n

ear

mor

ibun

d A

CC

E•

Mob

ilize

fund

ing

for

rese

arch

at

mul

tiple

leve

ls•

Use

res

earc

h fin

ding

s to

con

trib

ute

to A

fric

an li

tera

ture

on

jour

nalis

m a

nd

com

mun

icat

ion

• D

isse

min

ate

rese

arch

find

ings

wid

ely

2�


Th

eme

An

alys

isP

rop

osa

lsPo

licy

and

regu

la-

tion

Uga

nda:

• T

he M

inis

try

of In

form

atio

n an

d N

atio

nal G

uida

nce

with

in t

he O

ffice

of

the

Pri

me

Min

iste

r dr

afts

pol

icie

s an

d la

ws

and

mon

itors

med

ia

com

plia

nce.

It a

lso

appo

ints

the

Bro

adca

stin

g Bo

ard

that

ove

rsee

s th

e re

gula

tion

of b

road

cast

ing.

The

Uga

nda

Broa

dcas

ting

Cou

ncil

is r

espo

nsib

le fo

r lic

ensi

ng b

road

cast

ers,

whi

le t

he s

tatu

tory

Med

ia

Cou

ncil

allo

cate

s lic

ence

s fo

r th

e pr

int

med

ia, a

ccre

dits

jour

nal-

ists

and

arb

itrat

es in

cas

e of

dis

pute

s. T

he U

gand

a C

omm

unic

atio

ns

Com

mis

sion

in t

he M

inis

try

of In

form

atio

n, C

omm

unic

atio

ns a

nd

Tech

nolo

gy a

lloca

tes

freq

uenc

ies

and

supe

rvis

es t

heir

use

Ken

ya:

• T

he M

inis

try

of In

form

atio

n an

d C

omm

unic

atio

ns d

raft

s po

licy

and

law

s, in

clud

ing

thos

e go

vern

ing

ICT

s, an

d ov

erse

es t

heir

impl

emen

ta-

tion,

onc

e pa

ssed

. It

also

app

oint

s th

e Bo

ard

of t

he s

tate

bro

adca

ster

, th

e K

enya

Bro

adca

stin

g C

orpo

ratio

n (K

BC),

issu

es li

cenc

es t

o br

oad-

cast

ers,

and

over

sees

the

reg

ulat

ion

of t

he m

edia

sec

tor

in g

ener

al.

The

Com

mun

icat

ions

Com

mis

sion

of K

enya

in t

he s

ame

Min

istr

y is

re

spon

sibl

e fo

r th

e al

loca

tion

and

supe

rvis

ion

of fr

eque

ncy

use.

The

D

epar

tmen

t of

Info

rmat

ion

with

in t

he M

inis

try

runs

the

gov

ernm

ent

cont

rolle

d K

enya

New

s Age

ncy

and

issu

es p

ress

car

ds t

o m

edia

pra

c-tit

ione

rs. T

he O

ffice

of t

he R

egis

trar

in t

he O

ffice

of t

he A

ttor

ney-

Gen

eral

reg

iste

rs a

nd b

onds

new

spap

ers

and

book

s

Tanz

ania

:•

The

Tan

zani

a C

omm

unic

atio

ns R

egul

ator

y A

utho

rity

with

in t

he M

in-

istr

y of

Infr

astr

uctu

re d

eals

with

all

infr

astr

uctu

re r

elat

ing

to m

edia

an

d co

mm

unic

atio

ns. T

he M

inis

try

of In

form

atio

n, C

ultu

re a

nd S

port

s re

gula

tes,

licen

ces

and

over

sees

the

impl

emen

tatio

n of

the

law

, in

clud

ing

the

regu

latio

n of

con

tent

for

broa

dcas

ters

. Thr

ough

the

De-

part

men

t of

Info

rmat

ion

in t

he s

ame

min

istr

y, it

addr

esse

s th

e pr

int

med

ia. T

he M

edia

Cou

ncil

of T

anza

nia

arbi

trat

es in

cas

e of

dis

pute

s

Ethi

opia

:•

The

Min

istr

y of

Info

rmat

ion

licen

ces

all n

ewsp

aper

s an

d co

ntro

ls

the

appo

intm

ent

of e

dito

rs t

o al

l gov

ernm

ent-

owne

d pu

blic

atio

ns. I

n 20

06, a

Bro

adca

stin

g A

genc

y w

as e

stab

lishe

d to

lice

nce

radi

o st

atio

ns

- it

rece

ntly

lice

nsed

the

firs

t co

mm

unity

rad

io s

tatio

n. T

he M

inis

-tr

y of

Tra

de a

nd In

dust

ry is

sues

pri

vate

med

ia o

rgan

izat

ions

with

a

busi

ness

lice

nce

annu

ally.

The

gov

ernm

ent-

spon

sore

d Et

hiop

ia F

ree

Jour

nalis

ts A

ssoc

iatio

n (E

FJA

) pr

ovid

es a

pla

tfor

m fo

r di

scus

sion

of

jour

nalis

ts’ i

ssue

s. A

new

med

ia la

w is

bei

ng d

raft

ed b

y th

e M

inis

try

of

Info

rmat

ion

Inte

rnat

iona

l obl

igat

ions

• D

omes

ticat

e in

tern

atio

nal i

nstr

umen

ts a

nd a

ddre

ss h

arm

oniz

atio

n of

the

m

edia

law

s w

ithin

eac

h co

untr

y

Med

ia o

wne

rshi

p•

Add

ress

the

que

stio

n of

med

ia c

ross

-ow

ners

hip

and

med

ia m

onop

olie

s•

Tran

sfor

m s

tate

bro

adca

ster

s in

to p

ublic

bro

adca

ster

s, so

tha

t th

ey c

an b

e m

ore

acco

unta

ble

to t

he p

ublic

Med

ia r

egul

atio

n•

Res

olve

the

que

stio

n of

whe

ther

to

have

sta

tuto

ry o

r no

n-st

atut

ory

med

ia

coun

cils

so

that

sel

f-re

gula

tion

can

mov

e to

the

nex

t st

ep•

Reg

ulat

e ad

vert

isin

g to

ens

ure

that

thi

s gr

owin

g ar

m o

f med

ia d

oes

not

infr

inge

on

med

ia fr

eedo

m•

Add

ress

the

con

cent

ratio

n of

med

ia in

urb

an a

reas

to

ensu

re t

hat

rura

l pop

u-la

tions

are

not

mar

gina

lized

• En

gage

med

ia h

ouse

s to

rec

ogni

ze jo

urna

lists

’ tra

de u

nion

s

Med

ia c

onte

nt•

Add

ress

loca

l con

tent

issu

es in

a p

olic

y fr

amew

ork

• Em

bark

on

digi

tizat

ion

of c

onte

nt•

Inte

grat

e IC

Ts

in m

edia

, esp

ecia

lly t

hose

pro

vidi

ng p

ublic

ser

vice

• A

ddre

ss c

opyr

ight

and

inte

llect

ual p

rope

rty

for

bett

er r

emun

erat

ion

of jo

ur-

nalis

ts

Regi

onal

coo

pera

tion

• H

arm

oniz

e th

e le

gal f

ram

ewor

ks in

the

sub

regi

on•

Use

reg

iona

l org

ans

such

as

the

East

Afr

ican

Com

mun

ity (

EAC

) an

d A

fric

an

Uni

on (

AU

) to

pus

h fo

r m

edia

law

ref

orm

s an

d th

e re

aliz

atio

n of

the

rec

om-

men

datio

ns a

risi

ng fr

om t

his

STR

EAM

pro

cess

Uni

vers

al s

ervic

e an

d ac

cess

• R

eser

ve fr

eque

ncie

s fo

r ru

ral m

edia

• Es

tabl

ish

univ

ersa

l acc

ess

fund

to

supp

ort

rura

l med

ia a

nd e

nhan

ce r

ural

ne

wsp

aper

s

29


Th

eme

An

alys

isP

rop

osa

lsSo

mal

i:•

Alth

ough

the

re is

no

law

yet

, the

Tra

nsiti

onal

Cha

rter

neg

otia

ted

by t

he T

rans

ition

al G

over

nmen

t gu

aran

tees

free

dom

of t

he p

ress

. A

med

ia la

w is

now

bei

ng d

raft

ed b

y th

e M

inis

try

of In

form

atio

n an

d Pu

blic

Ori

enta

tion

• Ev

iden

t in

the

abo

ve c

ount

ry s

cena

rios

are

the

follo

win

g ga

ps:

(a)

The

re a

re p

olic

y ga

ps in

alm

ost

all c

ount

ries

. Eve

n w

here

law

s ex

ist

(suc

h as

Uga

nda)

, the

re is

no

polic

y fr

amew

ork.

In U

gand

a, fo

r in

stan

ce, a

Bro

adca

stin

g Po

licy

is n

ow b

eing

dra

fted

(b

) G

over

nmen

ts in

all

coun

trie

s st

ill fe

el t

hey

have

the

rig

ht t

o is

-su

e lic

ence

s an

d fr

eque

ncie

s as

the

y ch

oose

(c)

Frag

men

tatio

n of

lice

nsin

g an

d re

gula

tion

is e

vide

nt(d

) T

he s

tate

bro

adca

ster

s ha

ve n

ot b

een

tran

sfor

med

into

pub

lic

broa

dcas

ters

(e)

The

re is

lack

of m

oder

n te

chno

logy

and

effo

rts

tow

ards

dig

itiza

-tio

n ar

e sl

ow

30


3.1.

5 N

orth

Afr

ica

Tabl

e 6:

Nor

th A

fric

an r

egio

nal c

onsu

ltat

ion:

key

find

ings

Th

eme

An

alys

isP

rop

osa

lsM

edia

free

dom

• T

he A

rab

wor

ld, a

nd N

orth

Afr

ica,

is e

xper

ienc

ing

the

wav

es o

f de

moc

ratic

tra

nsfo

rmat

ion

in t

he m

edia

and

com

mun

icat

ions

se

ctor

bei

ng e

xper

ienc

ed b

y ot

her

part

s of

Afr

ica

• T

here

is s

ome

polit

ical

tol

eran

ce, w

ith a

tten

dant

rel

ativ

e m

edia

fr

eedo

m, i

n su

ch c

ount

ries

as

Egyp

t an

d M

oroc

co•

The

pri

vate

med

ia a

re m

ore

robu

st t

han

ever

, esp

ecia

lly in

Egy

pt.

Thi

s m

edia

pri

vatiz

atio

n ha

s al

so r

esul

ted

in a

deg

ree

of p

lura

lity

of m

edia

out

lets

and

a d

iver

sity

of o

pini

ons

• Bu

t th

ere

are

still

man

y pr

oble

ms

conf

ront

ing

the

med

ia. T

hese

in

clud

e th

e fo

llow

ing:

• R

estr

ictio

ns o

n th

e ri

ght

to p

ublis

h ne

wsp

aper

s, du

e to

the

re

quir

emen

t fo

r a

licen

ce a

s a

prec

ondi

tion

for

publ

ishi

ng. T

his

is

so, w

ith v

aryi

ng d

egre

es o

f per

mis

sive

ness

, in

Egyp

t, A

lger

ia a

nd

Mor

occo

• T

he s

ituat

ion

is w

orse

in L

ibya

. The

Lib

yan

Jam

ahir

iya

allo

ws

no

form

of p

riva

te o

wne

rshi

p of

new

spap

ers.

Thi

s is

rel

ated

to

the

polit

ical

sys

tem

tha

t do

es n

ot r

ecog

nize

any

opp

ositi

on p

oliti

cal

part

y•

The

exe

cutiv

e in

Nor

th A

fric

a ha

s po

wer

s to

ban

new

spap

ers.

The

situ

atio

n is

wor

se w

ith r

egar

d to

fore

ign

new

spap

ers,

whi

ch

can

be b

anne

d un

der

the

follo

win

g ci

rcum

stan

ces:

(a)

infr

ing-

ing

the

prin

cipl

es o

f Isl

am; (

b) h

arm

ing

the

publ

ic in

tere

st; (

c)

viol

atin

g th

e fr

eedo

m o

f bel

ief;

(d)

viol

atin

g ge

nera

l eth

ics;

and

(e)

thre

aten

ing

publ

ic o

rder

* •

Mos

t le

gisl

atio

n al

low

s fo

r th

e de

tent

ion

of jo

urna

lists

with

out

tria

l. Thi

s ‘ch

ills’

jour

nalis

ts in

to fe

ar t

o pu

blis

h fr

eely

• T

he s

cope

of l

egal

pro

hibi

tions

is t

oo b

road

in m

ost

of t

he

subr

egio

n, m

akin

g it

easy

to

crim

inal

ize

all m

anne

r of

med

ia a

nd

expr

essi

on. A

hos

t of

med

ia-r

elat

ed c

rim

es c

an t

hus

incl

ude:

(a

) di

stur

bing

the

Sta

te’s

rela

tions

hip

with

oth

er c

ount

ries

; (b)

im

pair

ing

natio

nal s

ensi

bilit

ies;

(c)

circ

ulat

ing

fals

e or

exa

gger

ated

in

form

atio

n or

info

rmat

ion

that

mig

ht d

ampe

n th

e sp

irit

of t

he

natio

n or

dis

turb

pub

lic p

eace

; and

(d)

pro

voki

ng o

r in

citin

g th

e co

mm

itmen

t of

cri

mes

• T

he s

ubre

gion

suf

fers

from

em

erge

ncy

law

s, es

peci

ally

in E

gypt

an

d A

lger

ia, w

ith a

ll th

e br

oad

pow

ers

enta

iled

Polic

y an

d le

gisla

tion

• El

imin

ate

rest

rict

ions

impo

sed

on t

he r

ight

of n

ewsp

aper

s to

pub

lish.

All

form

s of

pri

or c

ontr

ol o

n ne

wsp

aper

s sh

ould

be

abol

ishe

d, a

nd b

anni

ng

new

spap

ers

with

out

a co

urt

judg

emen

t sh

ould

be

proh

ibite

d•

Lobb

y fo

r an

end

to

the

stat

e of

em

erge

ncy

law

s us

ed in

cer

tain

cou

ntri

es,

and

a re

visi

on o

f the

ant

i-ter

rori

sm le

gisl

atio

n, in

suc

h a

way

as

not

to c

rim

i-na

lize

opin

ions

, ide

as a

nd t

he c

ircu

latio

n th

ereo

f•

Adv

ocat

e fo

r a

com

preh

ensi

ve r

evie

w o

f all

med

ia le

gisl

atio

n th

at im

pose

s cu

stod

ial p

enal

ties

on t

he m

edia

• Se

cure

jour

nalis

ts’ r

ight

of a

cces

s to

sou

rces

of i

nfor

mat

ion

• D

evel

op a

set

of c

lear

saf

e gu

ards

to

ensu

re t

hat

finan

cial

sup

port

or

gove

rnm

ent

faci

litie

s ex

tend

ed t

o m

edia

inst

itutio

ns (

adve

rtis

ing,

prin

ting,

dist

ribu

tion,

etc

.) do

not

influ

ence

the

ir m

edia

con

tent

* A

n im

port

ant

poin

t to

obs

erve

her

e is

tha

t w

hile

som

e of

the

se v

alue

s ap

pear

to

be li

bera

l-dem

ocra

tic, t

hey

are

subj

ect,

in t

he N

orth

Afr

ican

con

text

, to

Isla

mic

inte

rpre

tatio

n, w

hich

is

not

liber

al a

t al

l.

31


Th

eme

An

alys

isP

rop

osa

ls•

A r

elat

ed d

evel

opm

ent

is le

gisl

atio

n en

acte

d on

the

pre

text

of

stem

min

g ‘in

cite

men

t to

ter

rori

sm’,

espe

cial

ly in

Alg

eria

, Egy

pt,

Mor

occo

and

Tun

isia

. In

fact

, mor

e co

nstit

utio

nal a

nd le

gal

chan

ges

are

unde

rway

in E

gypt

to

stop

peo

ple

from

cha

lleng

ing

the

Stat

e on

the

unc

onst

itutio

nalit

y of

som

e of

the

ant

i-ter

ror

law

s en

acte

d•

Thi

s co

ntro

l is

exte

nded

to

the

owne

rshi

p of

info

rmat

ion

infr

a-st

ruct

ure,

incl

udin

g th

e di

stri

butio

n of

Inte

rnet

ser

vice

s. In

som

e co

untr

ies,

ther

e ar

e in

crea

sing

con

cern

s th

at e

lect

roni

c co

mm

u-ni

catio

ns, s

uch

as e

-mai

l, ar

e su

bjec

t to

con

trol

. In

addi

tion,

man

y w

eb-b

logg

ers,

who

hav

e be

en a

ctiv

e in

rec

ent

year

s, ar

e be

ing

pros

ecut

edM

edia

pra

ctic

e •

The

sub

regi

on h

as v

ery

wea

k jo

urna

lists

’ tra

de u

nion

s•

As

such

, med

ia p

erfo

rman

ce is

gen

eral

ly c

ompr

omiz

ed•

Whi

le T

unis

ia h

as s

ome

trad

e un

ioni

sm, t

his

is n

ot w

ithou

t pr

ob-

lem

s. Se

vera

l jou

rnal

ists

are

, for

exa

mpl

e, u

nder

pro

secu

tion

and

pers

ecut

ion

• Be

caus

e jo

urna

lists

are

poo

rly

orga

nize

d, t

here

see

ms

to b

e a

gene

ral l

ack

of p

rofe

ssio

nal s

olid

arity

in t

he s

ubre

gion

. Thi

s is

m

anife

st in

the

con

ceal

men

t of

the

bla

tant

vio

latio

ns o

f med

ia

free

dom

and

hum

an r

ight

s in

Tun

isia

Med

ia fi

nanc

ing/

sust

aina

bilit

y•

Adv

ocat

e fo

r th

e es

tabl

ishm

ent

of a

fund

to

supp

ort

the

role

of i

ndep

ende

nt

med

ia in

stitu

tions

and

sat

ellit

e ch

anne

ls

Med

ia o

wne

rshi

p•

Cam

paig

n fo

r th

e tr

ansf

orm

atio

n of

sta

te-o

wne

d m

eans

of m

ass

med

ia in

to

inde

pend

ent

publ

ic s

ervi

ce in

stitu

tions

, effe

ctiv

ely

term

inat

ing

the

stat

e m

onop

oly

of a

udio

visu

al m

eans

of c

omm

unic

atio

n

Med

ia r

egul

atio

n•

Empo

wer

the

aud

iovi

sual

med

ia c

ounc

ils t

o lic

ense

all

priv

ate

audi

ovis

ual

mea

ns o

f mas

s m

edia

. Suc

h co

unci

ls s

houl

d en

joy

inde

pend

ence

and

be

tota

lly s

hiel

ded

from

exe

cutiv

e in

terv

entio

n•

Elim

inat

e le

gal r

estr

ictio

ns o

n fr

eedo

m o

f ass

ocia

tion

by a

llow

ing

jour

nalis

ts’

trad

e un

ions

to

free

ly o

rgan

ize

and

mob

ilize

. Suc

h un

ions

mus

t be

em

pow

-er

ed t

o: (

a) p

rom

ote

the

stat

us o

f med

ia p

rofe

ssio

nals

and

upg

rade

the

ir

wor

king

con

ditio

ns; (

b) d

evel

op c

oord

inat

ion

mec

hani

sms

and

join

t ac

tion

with

hum

an r

ight

s or

gani

zatio

ns a

nd c

ivil

soci

ety

orga

niza

tions

to

face

up

to

the

pres

sure

s an

d vi

olat

ions

exp

erie

nced

by

med

ia p

rofe

ssio

nals

; and

(c)

act

i-va

te p

ress

and

med

ia c

odes

of e

thic

s at

the

Ara

b re

gion

al le

vel

32



Th

eme

An

alys

isP

rop

osa

lsM

edia

sup

port

and

tr

aini

ng•

The

re is

rec

ogni

tion

of t

he im

port

ance

of h

uman

rig

hts

and

civi

l so

ciet

y or

gani

zatio

ns in

adv

anci

ng m

edia

in t

he r

egio

n•

Such

bod

ies

are

seen

as

pote

ntia

l age

nts

of c

hang

e, e

spec

ially

w

hen

it co

mes

to

influ

enci

ng t

he o

ppre

ssiv

e le

gal r

egim

e•

The

y ca

n al

so h

elp

to s

et t

he a

gend

a fo

r en

tren

chin

g a

cultu

re o

f hu

man

rig

hts

and

dem

ocra

cy•

In t

hat

sens

e, s

uch

agen

cies

can

als

o se

rve

as t

rain

ers

of b

oth

soci

ety

and

med

ia in

the

val

ues

of d

emoc

racy

, hum

an r

ight

s, et

c

Polit

ical

sys

tem

• D

evel

op p

rogr

amm

es a

imed

at:

(a)

prom

otin

g th

e va

lues

of p

lura

lity,

dive

rsity

, to

lera

nce,

and

the

rig

ht t

o di

ffer;

and

(b)

reno

unci

ng fa

natic

ism

and

the

ex

clus

ion

and

deni

al o

f oth

ers

In-c

ount

ry a

nd r

egio

nal c

oope

ratio

n•

Prom

ote

grea

ter

coop

erat

ion

amon

g m

edia

sup

port

org

aniz

atio

ns, e

spec

ially

th

roug

h jo

int

activ

ities

• En

cour

age

the

effo

rts

of C

SOs

to in

fluen

ce m

edia

dev

elop

men

t, in

clud

ing

deve

lopi

ng o

bjec

tive

indi

ces

of m

edia

per

form

ance

, and

ela

bora

ting

a co

de o

f et

hics

for

all m

edia

dur

ing

elec

tions

Mob

ilizat

ion

• La

unch

a c

ampa

ign

to e

ncou

rage

the

set

ting

up o

f med

ia s

uppo

rt s

ervi

ces,

such

as

(a)

audi

ence

pre

ssur

e gr

oups

, and

(b)

pub

lishe

rs’ a

ssoc

iatio

ns, w

hich

ca

n he

lp t

o as

sess

the

per

form

ance

of t

he m

edia

on

the

basi

s of

the

pri

n-ci

ples

of d

emoc

racy

and

res

pect

for

hum

an r

ight

s

Inte

rnat

iona

l pre

cede

nts

• D

evel

op a

pro

gram

me

of a

ctiv

ities

to

tran

slat

e co

mpa

rabl

e m

edia

legi

slat

ion

and

the

rule

s la

id d

own

by E

urop

ean

cour

ts t

o pr

omot

e fr

eedo

m o

f exp

res-

sion

and

med

ia•

Ado

pt a

pro

gram

me

of e

xcha

nge

visi

ts t

o fa

cilit

ate

shar

ing

of e

xper

tise

and

expe

rien

ces

amon

g pe

ople

wor

king

in t

he m

edia

fiel

d

Trai

ning

• A

ppea

l to

civi

l soc

iety

inst

itutio

ns t

o de

velo

p ef

fect

ive

trai

ning

pro

gram

mes

fo

r jo

urna

lists

and

med

ia p

rofe

ssio

nals

, esp

ecia

lly a

mon

g th

e yo

uth,

in a

sso-

ciat

ion

with

jour

nalis

ts’ t

rade

uni

ons,

med

ia in

stitu

tions

, and

oth

er s

take

hold

-er

s•

Such

tra

inin

g sh

ould

be

prac

tical

, whi

le a

t th

e sa

me

time

help

ing

jour

nalis

ts

to d

eepe

n th

eir

lega

l aw

aren

ess

• Tr

aini

ng p

lans

and

pro

gram

mes

sho

uld

mee

t th

e ac

tual

nee

ds o

f tra

inee

s, es

peci

ally

in s

uch

area

s as

:(a

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This section provides a pan-African synthesis of the findings, incorporating the online discussions as well. The analytical categories under which the analysis is undertaken reflect the themes emerging from the regional consultation meetings and the online discussions.

4.1 The concept of media development

The concept of media development is not unproblematic. The initiatives charted above have not attempt-ed to define it in very specific terms, but what they emphasize might belie their definitional inclination. Indeed, the STREAM consultative process attempted a definition. To a very large extent, this has become a discursive matter, reflecting the institutional and membership frameworks of such initiatives. For ex-ample, on the one hand, the BBC World Service Trust’s African Media Development Initiative (AMDI) seeks to ‘mobilize a range of African and international stakeholders to significantly boost support for the development of the state, public and private sector media’. On the other hand, the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD) seems to emphasize the aspect of ‘independent’ media. For example, the inaugural conference held by GFMD threw up points of disagreement about whether ‘media development’ should concern itself with ‘development of the media’ or ‘development communications.’ A significant number of participants felt that the media should not consider it their job to be social advocates and take up the agenda of development and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Even the term ‘independent’ media was not fully agreed but there were allusions to privately owned commercial media as constituting ‘inde-pendent’ media. This would contrast somewhat with the BBC WST initiative’s emphasis on public/state media systems.

For its part, the STREAM consultative process seems to have adopted a more hybrid approach, drawing on the discourses of several international and continental documents, not least the Windhoek Declara-tion on Promoting an Independent and Pluralistic African Press, the African Charter on Broadcasting and the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa.

The Declaration of Principles seems clear about the content of media development. It calls, among other measures, for (a) the need to encourage the development of private broadcasting; (b) the need to trans-form state or government broadcasters into genuine public broadcasters; and (c) the need for indepen-dent broadcasting regulatory bodies.

The African Charter on Broadcasting extends this, and declares that ‘the legal framework for broadcasting should include a clear statement of the principles underpinning broadcast regulation, including promoting respect for freedom of expression, diversity, and the free flow of information and ideas, as well as a three-tier system for broadcasting: public service, commercial and community.’15

15 Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA). 2004a. African Charter on Broadcasting. [0]. Available: http://www.misa.org/broadcasting/acb.html. Accessed on 2006/08/30.

Chapter 4: Synthesis

34


For its part, the Windhoek Declaration outlines the key components of media development as consisting, among other elements, in the:

• Identification of economic barriers to the establishment of news media outlets, including restrictive import duties, tariffs and quotas for such things as newsprint, printing equipment, and typesetting and word processing machinery, and taxes on the sale of newspapers, as a prelude to their removal;

• Training of journalists and managers and the availability of professional training institutions and courses;

• Removing legal barriers to the recognition and effective operation of trade unions or as-sociation of journalists, editors and publishers; and

• Developing and maintaining a register of available funding from development and other agencies, the conditions attaching to the release of such funds, and the methods of applying for them; and the state of press freedom, country by country, in Africa…16

Clearly, it would seem, from the above, that the STREAM consultation has endorsed these documents, and re-interpreted them in terms of the particular experiences of each of the countries consulted. Media development is clearly much more than the economic and infrastructural growth of media institutions; it also embraces such human-developmental factors as freedom, gender equity, democracy, ethics, and so on. The media types emphasized include public, commercial and community media. Added to this are the newer forms of electronic media, all of which are valued in terms of their actual and/or potential contri-bution to expanding the boundaries of democratic expression, accountability, and popular participation.

4.2 Media regulation

The findings suggest that media regulation must be treated as an important component of any efforts at strengthening the media, highlighting its centrality in media performance. All the countries consulted have concerns about how the media are regulated. In North Africa, the concern is about what seems to be a heavily state-centred regulatory regime, clearly supported by a regimen of constitutional and legal provi-sions. This is true of several other countries, in East Africa, West Africa and Southern Africa.

This is not to suggest that there are no differences. The findings suggest that some countries have regis-tered positive changes, including having in place constitutional guarantees of independent media regula-tion. Examples include South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Malawi, etc. The findings also suggest the emergence of more repressive state-centric media regulatory regimes in countries such as Zimbabwe, Tunisia and Egypt. In Egypt, for example, legislation is underway to make it even more difficult for anyone to bring litigation against the State challenging the constitutionality of legislation impinging upon media freedom. In part, the boldness with which some countries, such as Egypt and Uganda, can enact such new laws against freedom of access to information is a result of the anti-terror fight waged by western countries, espe-cially the USA and UK.

A related finding here is about the meaning ascribed to the nature of media regulation. There is con-sensus on the need for self-regulatory or independent regulation. There are concerns, however, about the extent to which self-regulation can be applied. For example, in East Africa, the question is posed as ‘who watches over the watchdogs?’ There is an increasingly significant recognition, therefore, that media self-regulation should be bolstered by strong ethics-enforcement mechanisms that ensure that the media

16 Eurasian Media Forum. Windhoek Declaration on Promoting an Independent and Pluralistic African Press. [0]. Available: http://www.eamedia.org/windhoek.php. Accessed on 2006/08/30

35


operate in the public interest. This is particularly important in light of the emerging trend towards media over-commercialization which may compromise the editorial quality of media content.

A key finding here is the need for the transformation of state broadcasting institutions into true public service broadcasting institutions, endowing them with sufficient editorial independence to operate in the public interest. A synthesis of the recommendations suggested for enhancing self-regulation can be outlined as follows:

4.2.1 Supportive political environment

There is unanimity that the media in all the countries need a stable and supportive political environ-ment in order for them to thrive. This requires continued national, regional and international advocacy, preferably within existing campaign/advocacy and other structures, to bring about the necessary political changes, such as political tolerance and political will, all of which are necessary for getting the political elites to embrace media policy and law reforms.

4.2.2 Supportive legal environment

There is agreement that all countries need a constitutional and legal regime that supports the growth and development of media institutions. To this end, greater efforts at advocacy and campaigning are required, particularly for the enactment of freedom of information legislation. Such advocacy must be pitched na-tionally, regionally and internationally, taking advantage of different platforms.

There is already sufficient declarative commitment to the ideals of media-friendly legislation, at the level of the African Union (AU) as well as the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD)’s African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). Such advocacy and lobbying, therefore, must be based on declarations and commitments made by African governments and civil society. They must live what they preach.

4.2.3 Enabling economic environment

There is also consensus that self-regulation is better served when economic policies encourage the growth of independent media institutions by, among other actions:

• Reviewing economic policies, including considering tax incentives for media institutions, so that they become more supportive of media growth and development;

• Establishing an African media and communication support fund, whose mandate must clearly be to support the development of media institutions in terms of their investment oppor-tunities, training and in-service mechanisms, business partnerships, content distribution, etc. Such a fund should have a strong stamp of African leadership, drawing upon an analysis of existing media development funds, including Zambia’s Media Trust Fund (MTF), South Africa’s Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA), as well as the regional SAMDEF and SAIMED. To be sustainable, such a fund needs to draw upon a multiplicity of financial and other resources, especially those from within African nations themselves. Therefore, there is need to get support from national governments, the private sector, as well as from conti-nental bodies such as NEPAD. In addition, such a fund can learn from the experiences of the Investment Climate Facility for Africa (ICF), also formed as a consequence of the CfA;

• Supporting training in media management, and other business-related components of media development; and

36


• Inclusion of aid to the media in all bilateral and multilateral donor agreements entered into by African governments.

4.2.4 Enhanced associational infrastructure

There is also agreement that media institutions require the support of professional bodies, such as jour-nalists’ unions. To this end, the findings suggest the need to:

• Build the financial, human and other capacity of professional associations;• Establish stronger links between such professional associations and the other adjunct media

support organizations;• Encourage greater synergies between the media institutions themselves and the professional

bodies; and• Develop and/or entrench strong ethical codes of conduct, and attendant enforcement

mechanisms.

4.3 Media production

There is recognition of the need for the media to align their production in the public interest. Of par-ticular concern is the quality of media content. A related issue here is the fact that media production has become increasingly implicated in wider processes of commercialization and privatization, threatening to further compromise editorial independence.

Some specific proposals include the following:• Enhanced enforcement of journalism ethics through the self-regulatory mechanisms devised

by the professional bodies;• Strengthening professional bodies so that they can provide such enhanced self-regulation;• Establishment of more stringent media content quality control measures, including (a) focus

on gender, development, the environment, conflict and other such issues; and (b) subscribing to some external quality management systems such as CERTIMEDIA17;

• Greater and more focused education and training, at different levels of certification, in media management, entrepreneurship, etc;

• Increased remuneration to encourage greater heights of innovation among journalists; and• Support ongoing acquisition of multimedia skills to enable journalists become versatile and

work seamlessly in a technologically converged media environment.

4.4 Media education and training

Education and training are key to media development. There is consensus that education is a much broader process of developing the critical thinking abilities of journalists, while training emphasizes the skills base of media practitioners. Both sets of skills are required to enable journalists in their roles as producers, gatherers, packagers and disseminators of news and information.

17 CERTIMEDIA is a quality-management system designed to foster quality in the media industry, that is to enhance professional standards and practices at managerial, editorial, production and programming levels. It provides a methodology and tools for self-evaluation and self-improvement. It helps media companies formulate their Quality Policy, that is to design their own system of quality measurement and improvement. More details are available at: http://www.certimedia.org.

3�


There is broad agreement that media education and training institutions require strengthening. Such support must be extended to university, tertiary and other institutions. More specifically, the following proposals are suggested:

• National, regional and continental advocacy among ministries of higher and vocational education must be stepped up in order to ensure a minimum level of common assessment of educational and training programmes in Africa. This action, apart from facilitating student mobility and exchange, could significantly improve the teaching of journalism and media studies;

• Strengthen and use existing media education and training networks to support increased exchanges among media educators and trainers, as well as among media students;

• Lobby African governments to increase budgetary allocations to higher and vocational edu-cation in general and to media education and training in particular;

• Ensure that any support fund established for media ring-fences a sufficiently high proportion of its budget for media education and training; and

• Use the soon-to-be-launched UNESCO databank on African journalism educational institu-tions to further research into journalism education in Africa18.

4.5 Towards an ‘African media development facility’?

An explicit suggestion in the CfA report was the establishment of an African media development facility. While the consultations did not explicitly set out to enlist proposals for this, there were clear allusions to some form of continent-wide media and communication support fund (see 5.2.3 Enabling economic envi-ronment). In almost all cases, such a fund is seen as an African-led initiative which could draw upon existing national, regional and continental media development initiatives.

It is clear that the consultants, in some regions, are aware of existing media support mechanisms. This is especially evident in southern Africa, where initiatives such as MTF, MDDA, SAMDEF and SAIMED are located. In addition, the Media Development Loan Fund (MDLF) is piloting a project involving the estab-lishing of country or regional offices in Africa, as well as in Asia. This could prove useful in any further dis-cussions about the model such a fund as is proposed above could adopt. It is understandable, therefore, that respondents in all regions are particularly concerned that the proposed media and communication support fund must take cognizance of all these existing initiatives.

There are also clear concerns that any such continental initiative must be underpinned by the principles of (a) plurality; (b) diversity; (c) editorial independence; (d) participation; (e) accountability; and (f) Afri-can leadership. The consultants are not concerned, it would seem, about where such a body should be located. But it is important to point out here that the proposal for such a fund is treated co-equally with the other issues listed above. Therefore, it is safe to view the proposal for a fund as supplementing the equally important processes of policy-cum-legal reforms, media freedom, political will, enabling economic policies, media education and training, etc.

18 Here one can also cite the Knight Foundation-supported Global Census of Journalism Education, being conducted by the University of Oklahoma in the United States. This should provide invaluable data on the state of world journalism education, including Africa. Any efforts launched to support journalism education and training should, therefore, take this particular research initiative into account.


39


The synthesis above suggests that some issues occurred with repeated regularity in all the physical and online consultations. If the responses appeared different in some instances, it was largely an issue of dif-ferent ways of conceptualising issues. It was also an issue of linguistic diversity and its implications for the kinds of conceptual categories used to ‘name’ media phenomena.

To reiterate: A striking feature of the responses was the regularity or frequency with which they were uttered. Indeed, there were some responses which suggested that the discussions, both online and offline, seemed to regurgitate old discussions about the problems encountered by the media, and the solutions proffered. Clearly, this was a legitimate critique. However, it could not be said to have taken away from the integrity and legitimacy of the process of consultation.

The redundancy of some of the arguments could be said to have reinforced what was already known. It was clear, from the start of the process, that there was no illusion or pretension about a ‘magic-bullet’ solution. If anything, this was a political process designed to enable Africans to take leadership of the media development agenda, and define it on their own terms. True, such issues have recurred before, but the consultation provided an opportunity for Africans to reiterate their position on these issues.

Therefore, what this report presents as ‘priority areas for intervention’ represent those issues and themes which seemed to have occurred with greater regularity or frequency across all the regions. The value of this lies not only in the inherent significance of the issues and themes themselves, but also in the fact of their recurrence throughout Africa. To that end, they represent an ‘African Consensus’ on media development, reiterating problems and solutions that should have been addressed in the first place.

• Financing research or investigation into the institutional modalities of setting up a media and communication fund for Africa: As noted, this consultation did not explicitly set out to validate or invalidate the recommendation in the CfA report for an ‘African media development facility’. However, this issue re-emerged and was discussed throughout the consultation. It was not expected that these meetings would come up with a blueprint of what such a body should look like. But there was clear support for some form of continent-wide support mechanism that would, among other things: (a) provide financial support to the media; (b) help with international lobbying and advocacy for support to the media sector in Africa; and (c) mobilize resources for training and education.

• In the absence of any clear modalities, it was evident that the respondents were calling for focused research into the institutional modalities of such a fund, in terms of what could be its vision and mission, objectives, organizational structure, operating procedures, and strategies. More im-portantly, the respondents seemed to support the idea of a flexible mechanism that would not end up financing a huge bureaucracy, to the detriment of the media in need. This would seem to reinforce the finding which suggested the need to study the more established media support/development funds. From the point of view of media institutions as such, this

Chapter 5: Priority Areas for Intervention

40



would be the most important recommendation, as it tackles the problem of media sustain-ability directly.

• Supporting media training and education: There was clear and unqualified consen-sus on the need for propping up support to the media training and education sector. The responses correlated issues of the professional and ethical integrity of media institutions to both the quantity and quality of media training and education. For donors, such support could be given directly to training and education institutions, while building into it the issues and themes raised throughout the process of consultation, such as organic industry input, flexible curricula based on the needs of journalists, and for technological convergence, etc. There were also faint echoes of how such support could be built into any such media and communication support structure as it is finally instituted.

• Strengthening media support institutions: There was clear consensus on the need to increase support to African media support institutions. The rationale here is that media sup-port institutions are instrumental in advocacy, especially at the domestic level, for policy and regulatory enablement. At the same time, they act as a ‘watchdog’ over the media to ensure that the media serve the public interest. In some instances, they help to ‘restructure’ media so that they can become more sensitive of marginalized groups of people, such as women and youth. They are therefore part of the overall media support infrastructure.

• Supporting journalists’ unions and associations: Although journalists’ unions could be described as ‘media support institutions’, it was evident that most journalists felt the need for both labour and professional mobilization. Journalists’ unions are generally weak in Africa, reducing their bargaining power, particularly in the face of intense commercialization of the media. Such unions could assist journalists to represent their own labour interests. It was also clear that professional associations were distinct from generic media support organizations, making it important for journalists to develop a professional identity of their own as media practitioners. This identity could be correlated to a range of sub-issues, such as adherence to codes of practice, self-regulation, skills, etc.

41


This report has presented the key findings of the consultative process embarked upon by UNECA, in conjunction with key African media support institutions. The consultation was meant to ascertain the priorities for strengthening media institutions in Africa. It is clear that the process provided a platform for various African media actors to articulate their concerns and perspectives, identify priority issues and areas requiring support, and propose some initiatives and programmes towards a strengthened media sector.

The methodology of the process was predicated on amplifying the African voice on media development. People spoke, both within and without institutions, turning this consultation into an ethnographically rich process. While there was need to impose structure and coherence on the processes of data collection, this consultation was more interested in getting out the rich complexity and nuance of people’s perspectives, ideas, and knowledge about the possibilities for media development.

As part of integrating the findings of the process, the report has discussed the media and communications context within which the consultation took place, noting the key historical and contemporary processes that defined, and became implicated in, the initiative.

The analysis of the findings has taken a two-fold form. Firstly, the report has given regional overviews of the findings, drawing out themes, the analysis of those themes, and proposals suggested for resolving some of the problems suggested by the analysis. Secondly, the report has presented a pan-African synthe-sis of the findings, drawing upon both the regional overviews of the physical regional consultations and the online discussions. The synthesis largely depends upon the author’s second-order interpretations of the narratives of the stakeholders, weaving those interpretations around major themes commonly used in the study of media.

To the extent that the discussions, both during physical meetings and online consultations, allowed for free-ranging debate, it can be argued that the findings here are indicative of what is possible. While the findings suggest that there is a shared analysis and understanding of the media development dynamics in Africa, they also show that there is scope for more focused work of a technical nature, drawing upon the wealth of information presented here as well as in the individual reports of the online and physical consultations.

Africans know their problems. They know what is possible. This is shared across all the subregions, from North Africa right through to Southern Africa. They are aware that most of their problems are structural. They are also aware that they can be agents of change. With a little push of assistance, the possibilities for change are numerous, and the findings testify to that.

Chapter 6: Conclusion


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UNECA. 2006. Strengthening Africa’s media: building sustainable institutions to bolster the public sphere and nurture effective states. Report of the workshop held at Economic Commission for Africa. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 9-10 March 2006.

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