Africa participates in World Press Freedom Day 2009

The Media Institute of Southern Africa, the West African Journalists' Association, the Media Foundation for West Africa and the Eastern Africa Journalists Association will all be participating in various events in Africa in acknowledgement of World Press Freedom Day on 3 May, 2009.
For the 15th year in a row, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) is unveiling its report, "So this is Democracy", which looks at the state of the media in Southern Africa. MISA recorded 163 alerts in the year 2008, the most serious violations taking place in Tanzania - most notably the acid attack on journalist Saed Kubenea of the "Mwanahalisi". The government later banned the weekly, allegedly for publishing seditious material.

A similar distrust of private media has been the basis for media closures in Lesotho and Zimbabwe, says MISA. On 3 May, MISA's World Press Freedom Day statement and report will be available at www.misa.org for download.

The West African Journalists' Association (WAJA) is taking up UNESCO's theme of "media, dialogue and mutual understanding" by participating in demonstrations in Bamako, Mali and Dakar, Senegal and calling for talks between government and the media in West Africa. WAJA has high hopes that dialogue will help create an environment conducive to development of the media sector, "to decriminalise press offences and to put an end to the killings, assaults, arrests and imprisonment of journalists." For more info go to www.ujaowaja.org.

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) is teaming up with the Ghana Journalists Association to put dialogue between the government and the media in practice. On 4 May, press freedom advocates, such as Kwame Karikari, executive director of MFWA, and the presidents of Ghana's journalists', newspaper publishers' and independent broadcasters' associations, can exchange views with the Minister of Information, Zita Okaikoi at a symposium at the Ghana International Press Centre in Accra. On 6 May, more talks will follow on how to turn GBC - Ghana Broadcasting Corporation - into a "true public service broadcaster." For more info go to www.mediafound.org.

Worried about the growing intolerance towards independent journalism and rising violence against journalists, the Eastern Africa Journalists Association is organising a workshop on 2-3 May in Kigali, Rwanda. IFEX members the Media Institute from Kenya and Somalia's National Union of Somali Journalists will be among some of the attendees addressing the situation facing journalists and media in eastern Africa, including journalists' safety and working conditions, professional ethical standards, the place of investigative journalism in the region, and media as a tool for dialogue and reconciliation. For more information email moise@eaja.org or omar@nusoj.org.

Kate Coyer and Others on Meaningful Research

The Social Science Research Council has published several interesting essays about communication research.
http://www.ssrc.org/essays/mcrm/?p=28
The following is an excerpt from the essay by Kate Coyer
Community Media:
Scholarship, Policy Advocacy, and Power Tools
Introduction
I was once quoted in a magazine article saying that I never wanted to attend a conference again if it didn’t involve power tools. At the time, I was likely holding a soldering iron in my hand. In my ideal world I would have the time, resources and commitment to be a scholar, a policy advocate, and a community media volunteer. In reality of course my interventions vary in their efficacy.

What I do take away from these experiences of helping build (literally) community radio stations with the Prometheus Radio Project and train volunteer producers is what I hope to be a deeper understanding of what goes into building and sustaining independent, not for profit media; what some of the practical research needs are related to increased pressure from funders to measure impact (as well as a desire to better understand one’s audiences and communities being served); and a desire to see the sector grow and evolve. The question is how can I translate this into meaningful research.

Background: Low Power Movement and Policy-making
The movement for Low Power FM Radio (LPFM) in the United States in the was fought and won by activists with groups like Prometheus and what was then the Microradio Empowerment Coalition with little if any academic research to draw on for support. Many case studies and scholarly pieces have been written about the success of stations on air and the model of communities coming together to collectively build their own stations pioneered by Prometheus called “Radio Barnraisings.”

For the rest of this essay go to: http://www.ssrc.org/essays/mcrm/?p=28



Kate and workshop participant in Tanzania. Prometheus Radio Project technicians and trainers joined forces with the United African Alliance Community Center in Imbaseni Village near Arusha, Tanzania

Short Rough Preview of Waves of Change

The Campaign against Darwin's Nightmare

I received this letter from Joan Churchill:
Dear Friends,
My apologies for writing one letter to all of you, but I am about to
disappear to Alaska on a production & wanted to get this to you. If
you click on the link below, you can read about the hate campaign
against Hubert Sauper's documentary, "Darwin's Nightmare." We’re
asking you to sign a letter of support that will be given to the
French judge presiding over Hubert's case against a French professor
who has carried out a relentless and far-reaching campaign of
defamation and intimidation against him and the film.
It's an incredible story complete with manufactured websites
depicting Hubert & bin Laden having a beer, faked interviews with the
subjects of "Darwin's Nightmare," where one hears the interviewer
say, "what I want you to say is...."

But what's really going on is that "Darwin's Nightmare" shook the
government of Tanzania & threatened the corporate powers whose
profits rely on the misery of victims of AIDS, poverty, starvation, &
the numerous wars fueled by the trade of arms for fish. So they went
after Hubert & "Darwin's Nightmare," a film that has won more awards
throughout the world than one can count.

I hope you will read the history & sign the letter of support.. The
trial begins this week. This is not just about one film, but about
the issue as it affects all documentarians' right to practice their
craft free of threats of calumny & censorship.
Onwards,
Joan Churchill
to sign http://www.stolendev.com/hubert/
user name: doc password: signer

After I posted this I received an email from my friend Katharina who has written articles critical of the film. Her position is that "Of course this campaign against the filmmaker is disgusting and so are the arguments and threats brought by the Tanzanian government.." She says it is a "well-intentioned film" but that ultimately it is naive and is mostly good for promoting the filmmaker. That Sauper had not "even done the most basic research before embarking on this project, or even read some post colonial theory, he is more an “adventurer” than a researcher..." The biggest problem for her is that the "film offers a kind of christian catharsis for the (white)viewer: you go in, feel really bad with these people for a while, maybe cry a bit, then you don´t eat victoria lake bass for a minute or two, and feel better about yourself. this does not change the situation in Tanzania one bit."

She mentions that Sauper did not try to contact local people who were working on the issue: "at the time of his shoot there even was an indymedia group working out of Dar-Es-Saalam. Sauper did not contact them or other Tanzanians who have done research on this subject. the only articulate Tansanian in his film appears at the very end – before that all we see are victims, who need help but can't help themselves – I find this a very dangerous, Eurocentric and paternalistic perspective that always reminds me of the catholic mission magazines my grandmother had on her coffee table. showing poverty like that is one of the most paralysing things happening to african countries – and i guess we have seen by now that it does not change anything, on the contrary, it reinforces the same stereotypes again and again. We are so used to these images, i think they even make us feel better."
Katharina is a filmmaker who has also worked in Africa: "As a filmmakers, this is exactly what I have always worked against. I think what we should do is to give these people a voice and help them to get organized poitically to get out of the situation. pity is the last thing they need. I followed the reaction of the African community here in Vienna a little bit: Darwins Nightmare was condemned by them as well as his film about Rwanda (which is horrible). i have not met one person of African descent who had anything positive to say about the film, and i have not met more than 10 white people who criticised it - isnt´that strange? i guess the post colonial discourse has not reached the film world yet."