Southern Africa: Regional News Agencies Meet In Maputo

15 March 2001
Panafrican News Agency (Dakar)

Lusaka, Zambia — Heads of National News Agencies within the Southern African Development Community, (SADC), meet in the Mozambican capital, Maputo, Friday, to map out new strategies on the problems and advantages created by the Internet.

An official said the two-day "SADC News Agencies Meeting" would discuss the future of the News Agencies following the advent of the Internet in relation to the opportunities and challenges posed by the medium.

Renato Matusse, Permanent Secretary for the SADC sector responsible for Culture, Information and Sports, will open the meeting to be chaired by Henry Muradzikwa of Zimbabwe's ZIANA News Agency.

Participants would examine several documents, including one from Oliver Boyd-Barrett of the California State University, presented at the UNESCO conference in Amman, Jordan last January.

The paper on "The Future of National News Agencies," analyses prominent wire service Organisations such as the London- based Reuters, the Pan-African News Agency, (PANA) based in Dakar, Senegal, and the French News Agency, AFP.

The paper examines issues such as crisis in, and viability of the National News Agencies in Europe, Africa, Asia and South America.

The meeting is also expected to discuss the future of regional News Agencies and news exchange programmes.

Apart from ZIANA, the Zambian News Agency ZANA, its counterparts from Mozambique, AIM and Namibia, NAMPA, as well as the Southern African Broadcasting Association, are taking part in the Maputo meeting.

But it was not immediately clear if South Africa and Angola would send representatives.

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