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Media Groups Explore
Options for African Media Development Facility
Media development organizations have met in Dakar, Senegal,
in an effort to outline priorities and explore implementation options or
the African Media Development Facility proposed by the recent Commission
for Africa report, “Our Common Interest”.
The meeting, the first such gathering of organisations to
realise Commission for Africa’s call to create an African Media
Development Facility to help support good governance in Africa, was
convened by the BBC World Service Trust and held in the heels of the World
Press Freedom Day activities organised by the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), also in Dakar.
The meeting was a gathering of northern and African groups
engaged in journalism training, media reform, media pluralism and freedom
of expression activities and set the tone for potential collaboration on a
new scale.
Organisations represented in the meeting included the Union
for Radio and Television Networks for Africa (URTNA), the International
Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Rhodes University School of Journalism,
Southern Africa Broadcasting Association (SABA), the Media Institute of
Southern Africa (MISA), BBC World Service Trust, Internews Network, UK
Department for International Development (DFID), Article 19 (the Global
Campaign for Free Expression), Reuters Foundation, and Endemol SA.
Other organizations were the Nation Media Group, Africa
Woman.org, Media Rights Agenda (MRA), the West African Journalists
Association (WAJA), the Pan African News Agency (PANA), Panos Institute
West Africa (PIWA), the BBC World Service and Afrisat. The Canadian
Journalists for Free Expression (CFJE)/the International Freedom of
Expression Exchange (IFEX) and the Centre for Research Education and
Development of Freedom of Expression and Associated Rights (CREDO)
participated as observers.
The Commission of Africa’s report lays out a comprehensive
series of recommendations intended to catalyze additional support for
Africa alongside reforms which can lead to improved governance on the
continent.
The role of the media features prominently, with the report
specifically recommending that: “Independent media institutions, public
service broadcasters, civil society and the private sector, with support
from governments, should form a consortium of partners, in Africa and
outside, to provide funds and expertise to create an African media
development facility.”
The Dakar meeting made significant strides in outlining the
potential priorities and design of such a facility. Key among the group
was a view that the strengthening of the media sector in Africa is a vital
component in realising the report’s call for increased attention to good
governance. The group also believed that a co-ordinated partnership of
African and international organisations could help to address the fact
that current efforts on media development in Africa are sometimes
uncoordinated or unsustained, and a fresh initiative could look to create
a set of long-term, strategic interventions that build on the successful
work of those present.
The BBC World Service Trust Director, Mr. Stephen King,
stated: “Free and independent media has always been a key cornerstone of
any mature democracy and economy. As Africa continues to attract
increased donor support, investment and capability, a vibrant and strong
media will play a critical role in its overall good governance and
development. The recent Commission report gives all of us working in media
development an opportunity to scale up and better coordinate activities
which we know to work.”
Mr. Edetaen Ojo, Executive Director of Media Rights Agenda,
spoke in similar vein, saying: "we see this as a unique opportunity for a
coalition of African and international organisations to co-ordinate and
increase efforts to strengthen free and independent media throughout
Africa."
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