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UNESCO Supports Conference of African Free Expression Organisations
The Media Foundation for West Africa (Accra), the Media
Institute of Southern Africa (MISA, Windhoek), the Journalists in Danger
(Kinshasa) and the Media Rights Agenda (Lagos), will jointly organise a
three-day conference of African freedom of expression promotion
organisations to deliberate on promoting the advancement of freedom of
expression on the continent.
The Conference will take place at the Noguchi Memorial
Institute for Medical Research conference hall at the University of Ghana
in Accra on October 28, 29 and 30, 2005. It will bring together
representatives of over 20 free expression advocacy organisations from
North, Southern, Central, Eastern and West Africa.
The conference is supported by the International
Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) of the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisations (UNESCO).
It will be attended also by a number of international
free expression advocacy organisations such as the International Media
Support (Denmark), International Freedom of Expression eXchange
(Toronto), ARTICLE 19 (London), the Index on Censorship (London), the
International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), and others.
The Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression in Africa, Mr.
Andrew R. Chigovera, as well as the head of the
Human Rights desk of the African Union, Mr. Patrice Vahard, will also
attend the conference.
The conference will develop strategies of lobbying the African Union, the
Economic Communication of West African States (ECOWAS), the Southern
African Development Community (SADC) and other inter-state bodies on
reform of the laws obstructing free speech and expression, and discuss
ways to develop proposals for common legal standards for free expression
legislation in Africa.
The conference will also develop plans and strategies for waging campaigns
on a continental and international scale to protest or redress cases of
extreme violations, such as the arbitrary detention and or murder of
journalists, writers and others when these occur.
The need for intensifying and strengthening advocacy
for expanding freedom of expression has become urgent for several
reasons. With the emergence of media pluralism in the late 1980s and
early 1990s, there appeared to be some progress toward opening up the
space for free expression. In recent years, however, developments tend to
project increasing attacks on press freedom and freedom of expression
around the continent.
The repressive laws that criminalise speech and media
activities still remain on the books and are used incessantly, and
governments are reluctant to change these repressive instruments.
Politicians in government, especially, aided by courts with authoritarian
reflexes, are using civil defamation laws to weaken press freedom through
outrageous fines and damages from country to country.
Harassment of media is intensifying; voices of
opposition political parties are being stifled; academic freedom for
students is being eroded; cultural-bound sources of silencing women and
other groups remain stubbornly undisturbed; and religious intolerance
appears to be growing.
Governments are, at best, reluctant in permitting
citizens access to information they hold. Only South Africa and Uganda
have in existence laws for citizens’ right of access to information.
Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria have drafts for Freedom of Information
legislation, but they show signs of hesitation in passing the bills with
the democratic provisions proposed by civil society.
In countries in conflict, such as Somalia, non-state
actors are violently hounding the already bedevilled media.
Tendencies in advanced democracies towards legislation
that restrict free speech, presented as part of the legitimate need to
fight terrorism, also pose the danger of encouraging undemocratic states
to heighten repression in our part of the world.
Freedom of expression is the live wire and the heart of
democracy. More work needs to be done to expand the space, confront new
challenges, and support positive initiatives and goals on national,
sub-regional and continental levels to move these human rights forward.
The African organisations and their international
collaborators want to work together to develop plans to mount campaigns in
coming years to help to consolidate gains made and to expand the space for
more freedom as our contribution to the democratic development of our
continent.
The MFWA, MISA, JED, and MRA wish to express their
appreciation of UNESCO’s support to organise this conference in Accra at
this critical moment.
Issued in Accra
October 25, 2005
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