Regional Experts Meeting Holding in Accra to Agree Document for Minimum Standards of Media Practice Iin West Africa

2 February 2010
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Economic Community of West African States (Abuja)
press release

Regional experts are meeting in Accra from Thursday, 4th February 2010 to consider a draft document to establish a region-wide minimum norms and standards for media practice in West Africa that would eschew xenophobia and contribute to the promotion of democracy as well as regional peace and security.

Representatives of journalists associations, media commissions, media owners and oversight institutions are attending the two-day meeting to agree on the document that will also facilitate cooperation among regional media practitioners and deploy journalists as veritable watchdogs of human security, the rule of law, integration and the promotion of social harmony.

The envisaged minimum standards will have elements to promote responsible journalism and zero tolerance for media practice that promotes hate, intolerance and division. Delegates to the meeting will exchange views on the methodology for operationalising the extant provisions of the ECOWAS Conflict Prevention Framework relating to the role of the media in the promotion of regional peace and stability.

They will also agree on norms and standards for media practitioners to combat hate media, examine the challenges, prospects and strategies for ensuring respect for freedom of information laws and protecting journalists from persecution. The meeting will also agree on a framework for enhancing the capacity of regional media practitioners to contribute to the realization of the 2020 vision of ECOWAS to transform into an ECOWAS of people instead of states, based on community citizenship, free movement and the principle of constitutional convergence as well as develop a framework for cooperation and coordination between ECOWAS and the media.

Papers to be presented and discussed by the participants will focus on the media and its impact on national development, the media and conflict in West Africa, national laws and policy environment that provide the backdrop for the media, the role of the civil society in promoting a responsible media, parliamentary and judicial oversight responsibility in support of the media and the framework for strengthening intra-media cooperation in the region.

The ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, Colonel Mahame Toure will present the lead address of the meeting on the media as a tool for enhancing accountability and good democratic governance in ECOWAS Member States.

Read the original article on Ecowas.

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