10 November 2009
Nairobi — The media plays a key role in setting the governance agenda and its freedom is important to achieve this end, the Executive Director of the African Media Initiative Amadou Mahtar Ba has said.
Mr Mahtar made the remarks when he briefed the Media Owners Association on the Pan African Media Conference that the AMI is organising to take place in March next year.
"We intend to use the conference to showcase the success stories of the media landscape in the continent as has been witnessed in Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya all of which are enjoying some degree of media freedom," he said.
Mr Mahtar, who is also the president of AllAfrica Global Media based in Washington, said leaders from across the globe who will grace the occasion, on March 18 to 19, will realise that the media is not always that weak, inefficient and collapsed institution it is thought to be.
"We have good examples around here ranging from the Nation Media Group, The Standard Group, Royal Media Service, Radio Africa and even the state owned Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, all of which are success stories," he said.
He said the media in Africa has been characterised by lack of capacity, inefficient investment, limited research and inhibitive policy all of which will be adequately addressed in the conference that is slated to be opened by President Kibaki and closed by Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
The conference, which will have several round table sessions including that of Noble Laureates, aims to address issues of curtailed media with experiences form such states as Eritrea, Gambia and Sudan.
"We will create a template of good practice that will be applicable across the continent despite the variant environments that the media in those countries operate in," said Mr Mahtar.
Answers that will be sought from the conference include: After 50 eventful years of political independence, what is the state of press freedom in Africa? How much have the media been their own enemy? Which opportunities to grow media and press freedom were seized, and which ones were missed? What, given the growth of new media and citizen journalism, is the future of media in Africa?
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It is indeed worrying to hear such events are taking place in Zambia, and nothing is done to protect and assure the work of the media. I see no fact/evidence from the Government part in claiming careless/ irresponsible journalism, and even if a point is made on the claim, it does not serve as an excuse to let journalists being attacked under authorities eyes. Banda and his government should work on to address issues of national interest and security, not ignoring it and seeking to give a reason for the attacks.
Active Discussions: Threats to Press Freedom