Radio Silence

This week representatives from over 30 African media outlets gathered in Dakar, Senegal for the inaugural meeting of the African Media Leaders' Forum (co-sponsored by The World Bank and allAfrica.com). 

The meeting provided a great opportunity for publishers from across the continent to convene. It was an especially useful chance for some of the continent's smallest independent publishers to be in the same room with representatives of Africa's largest media companies to discuss common issues as well as how best to grow the media's presence.

One of the key issues raised was the need for Africa's media outlets to present themselves as viable busineses and not charities, so as to earn greater respect from audiences, governments and potential advertisers:

In a vigorously-argued contribution to the forum, Nduka Obaigbena, the founding editor-in-chief and chairman of Nigeria’s THISDAY newspaper, advocated a blueprint for the development of media in Africa based on an acceptance of the efficacy of markets.

The continent’s media needed “partners and investors, not donors… It is not as if we are begging,” he said. Until publishers improved the capacity of their journalism, they would not earn the respect they needed to attract more readers, and thus more advertising. “Let’s produce damned good products,” he urged.

Amen.

In the same article, the leader of East Africa's Nation Media Group (which owns the Daily Monitor where I worked in Uganda) urged for greater cooperation across the continent. 

Linus Gitahi, the chief executive officer of East Africa’s Nation Media Group, wanted media leaders to find ways of sharing content across the continent “to tell the African story in an African way” instead of relying on Western-generated news about the continent, which often meant news was misreported or not reported at all.

He also called for African media leaders to pool resources for training and for more focus on bringing more radio broadcasters – who reached much bigger audiences than newspaper – to join other media leaders in planning for the future.

The radio point is, as I've said here several times, key. Beyond its importance as the medium best equipped to reach broader audiences, training is also important for radio because of the technical skills required and the investment needed to produce high quality programming. There is a greater need for investment of training and money in that sector and it is uplifting to see that point being made at the forum.

The forum convened with three main goals:

* To listen to media owners about the kinds of support they need to address deeply-rooted problems in their industry;

* To begin a discussion about content, the role of the media in development  and the links between regional development and long-term business interests of the media; and

* To take up a discussion started by the European Union and African Union about the links between repressive policy environments and the lack of journalistic ethics, and to encourage consensus around the need for a journalistic code of conduct.