Media Barometer for 20 African countries

THE Media Institute of Southern Africa and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation yesterday signed an agreement to pave the way for a series of in-country self-assessment exercises on media freedom in Africa.

Around 20 African countries will be monitored on how they deal with free, independent, professional and economically viable media. At the end a self-assessment exercise will be done by concerned and informed citizens in each country according to a number of general, home-grown criteria.The main areas on which country performances are judged are: * freedom of expression, * diversity, independence and sustainability of media, * independence and transparency of the broadcasting regulation and the transformation of the state broadcaster * and, lastly, professional standards of media practitioners.Speaking at the signing ceremony in Windhoek, Peter Schellschmidt, head of the media project at the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, said the African Media Barometer was primarily meant to stimulate and encourage governments and civil society to work for positive changes where they were needed.The results of the African Media Barometer (AMB) will be released twice a year, he said, in the hope that countries would be able to identify major problems and ways to deal with them.He said the analysis after the 2005 and 2006 rounds clearly indicated a lack of credible and independent public broadcasters in most African countries as the number one problem – “and Namibia is no exception in this regard”.Misa’s Regional Director, Kaitira Kandjii, said the AMB was motivated by the omission of free and independent media as key requirement for good governance in the African Peer Review Mechanism.”We believe that without a government ensuring the promotion of a free and independent media, which in essence is the promotion of freedom of expression of a free people, good governance is not possible and democracy cannot flourish,” he said.At the end a self-assessment exercise will be done by concerned and informed citizens in each country according to a number of general, home-grown criteria.The main areas on which country performances are judged are: * freedom of expression, * diversity, independence and sustainability of media, * independence and transparency of the broadcasting regulation and the transformation of the state broadcaster * and, lastly, professional standards of media practitioners.Speaking at the signing ceremony in Windhoek, Peter Schellschmidt, head of the media project at the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, said the African Media Barometer was primarily meant to stimulate and encourage governments and civil society to work for positive changes where they were needed.The results of the African Media Barometer (AMB) will be released twice a year, he said, in the hope that countries would be able to identify major problems and ways to deal with them.He said the analysis after the 2005 and 2006 rounds clearly indicated a lack of credible and independent public broadcasters in most African countries as the number one problem – “and Namibia is no exception in this regard”.Misa’s Regional Director, Kaitira Kandjii, said the AMB was motivated by the omission of free and independent media as key requirement for good governance in the African Peer Review Mechanism.”We believe that without a government ensuring the promotion of a free and independent media, which in essence is the promotion of freedom of expression of a free people, good governance is not possible and democracy cannot flourish,” he said.