Building a Coalition for African Media Development
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51 52 Building a Coalition for African Media Development Inclusive Governance is the “By 2020, 60% of our people will The Forum discussed a fresh perspective from international and key be living in slums where their regional development institutions on strengthening and funding vulnerability will be intense. In Kibera, African media. Following the Key Note Adress by Nairobi, 43% of kids are stunted, Guest of Honour Dr Frannie Léautier, 15% are wasted. There is no public The key issues raised were: What is the responsibility of media as a investment there. Where is the Jay Naidoo took the floor and said corporate and social citizen of Africa? What are the development “There is one thing that sits at the story?” challenges of Africa? How is African media framing these core of everything we debate – development challenges and how to partner with it in order to whether the media, development “If you think about theft in Africa tell the untold stories of development? How should African media or business - that is politics. Politics – how Africa has been robbed! reconstitute itself in order to stay relevant by responding to these drives all. If you consider the The biggest crooks of all are the challenges and participate in improving the living conditions of challenges facing media, such multinationals. Between 60% to 70% Africans in these times of unprecedented technological changes? as who gets a license, how is it of all money that has left illegally How to build a grand coalition of stakeholders to address the core regulated, who is able to stop your from Africa is through tax evasion". constraints of African media, and where to start? revenue streams, who is able to Eric Chinje bully you or harass your journalists – "This is taking money away from our Speaking from the chair of the plenary session ‘Building a coalition it comes back to the issue of politics. ability to provide a better life. If we for media development in Africa’, Eric Chinje said media should play The core of the development really are convinced that we have a central role in the design and implementation of the development challenges of Africa is governance” a role to be a watchdog it means agenda of Africa. stated Jay Naidoo we have to take a stand against all vested interests". Jay Naidoo “Yet when we analyse African media content we see the widening “However, it is great to see that of the gap between media content on the one hand and the there is an opening of space being We need a gender revolution development agenda of nations on the other,” Chinje said. pushed by people on the ground. We are in Tunis – the cradle of the Bineta Diop, Executive Director, “This is especially true as you go down the development pyramid – the Arab Spring and celebrating these Femme Africa Solidarity asserted, poorer the country, the wider the gap between what the media winds of change that will define “We should not shy away from serves the population and what the government says its' development global development for the next the fact that African women are agenda is and as countries become industrialised, that gap narrows”. decade. It is not Twitter or Facebook suffering. We should be the ones to that runs revolutions – those are tell those stories. The good ones and He compared the healthy development coverage in a relatively tools, it is people. People should be the bad ones”. developed country like South Africa to the dismal development at the centre of our development content of media in underdeveloped countries such as Niger. “How paradigm”. “We have seen an Arab revolution. do we bring media into the development space?” Chinje asked. For me the women of Tunisia have “What is the development role of gained tremendously over the Chinje concluded on the fact that in order to narrow the development media? It is a question of trust. Do past decade. Even before the gap the media must be supported in a variety of ways and “that is people trust us? We must think time of Ben Ali, they fought for the coalition we are talking about building.” about what the messages are their fundamental rights. What we and the appropriate messaging need is a gender revolution across platforms we need to build for those Africa. The first thing we need to do messages”. is challenge some of our culture Bineta Diop 53 54 Building a Coalition for African Media Development which is fundamental in the development of and transmission of objective and balanced Africa. We must change our attitudes about the information. relationship between men and women. Financing of media must be treated in a holistic In conflict zones we are using women’s bodies as manner. The AfBD is the bank for development part of strategy of war. What kind of culture is this? and we must develop the necessary mechanisms This is not a western conspiracy; it is something that to transform all those ideas into sustainable is happening in Africa, of Africa. I have seen it”. projects. It is imperative that these projects have a developmental impact. Paulo Gomes Diop concluded by saying that the gender revolution will happen as the rights of African Regional media integration needed for men are no different from the rights of African women. When it comes to the development of media finance our continent we need to make sure that women Paulo Gomes, Chief Executive Officer of the are part of the mechanism of governance, but Constelor Group and AMI Board member stated also that we all benefit from the resources of our "For an African Al Jazeera to happen we need continent. “I want to see an alliance between our a regional integration mind set. We need our networks that our issues become your issues and leadership to understand that there is no way out that your issues become ours.” for Africa but regional integration". Transforming ideas into sustainable Gomes said that “I come from a country of 1 development projects million people. Is it reasonable to say we can afford embassies in all major countries in the world? Or Magatte Wade The Forum Heard from Magatte Wade of the AfDB. afford to pay for a very sophisticated education He stated that the AfDB is already present and system, health system, roads, when you know that involved in the development and strengthening of one third of the country is populated, the rest is media on the continent. However, there is an urgent not". need to develop a framework for the financing of media in africa as the continent positions itself as a “In the media you will also need integration. global player. Media plays a critical role in purveying As a financier I need aggregation to have a the image of africa and promoting development. A comfortably sizable business opportunity. It is state that is transparent, a government that promotes difficult with limited resources, as a commercial a culture of good governance is reflected in its bank, to fund a small group with a newspaper”. media that is free and where freedom of opinion and expression are upheld. “We need a partnership between the multilateral institutions such as the African Development Bank The 2000 Presidential Election in Senegal is a and the commercial banks. We must find a way case in point. The media played a crucial role in to funnel resources through one, two, three, four consolidating democracy. In fact, as the results were banks and provide resources to the media but made public, journalists were in the counting centers that will be just one side of the coin. The other relaying the information to the public. Here we see side is to see what kind of integration the African how the media can be instrumental in the treatment Media Leaders can effect on your side”. 55 Building a Coalition for African 56 Media Development NEPAD and the African media correspondents in different parts African Forum for Media Development, South Sudan’s Struggle for a of the continent so as to enable journalism and media educators, the Free Press Prof Richard Mkandawire of the African voice within Africa to network of African journalism schools Bakhita Radio is a popular Juba-based NEPAD asserted that, “The media reverberate with this new vision. and African press freedom advocacy Christian station in South Sudan that holds is very slowly starting to embrace groups. weekly political forums. Sister Cecilia Sierra the NEPAD (New Partnership for New Developments Sister Cecilia and has been African Development) agenda. QUOTES OF NOTE Salcido is head of the station Sierra Salcido asked on three occasions to provide authorities NEPAD represents a development Bettina Peters, head of the Global with a staff list with contact details and to stop paradigm shift. It is a reformist Fund for Media Development was of all political programming. agenda that speaks to the need for the opinion that we have asked the Comment, Melvyn Prescott Foote, President for the Constituency regional integration, accountability, media to be drivers of social change, for Africa, an advocacy organisation based in Washington DC: She has managed to continue operating Prof Richard Mkandatwire transparency, and fast-tracking development and the gender despite authorities’ demands and believes a development. We cannot allow “For me diaspora equals innovation. A lot of the revolution. “We seem to want media certain level of understanding is now gradually Africa to remain an island of to do a lot!” Peters believed that innovation we are seeking is available in the developing between security agents and the destitution and poverty in the midst the media needed the proposed diaspora.