Africa Media Leaders Forum(AMLF) Lagos, Nigeria 4-6 November 2009

 

 

2009 AMLF Agenda Africa Media Leaders Forum(AMLF) Lagos, Nigeria 4-6 November 2009, http://www.amlf2009.org

Introduction and Objectives

Welcome to the second African Media leaders Forum. This second Forum builds on the outcomes of the first Forum including the Dakar Declaration that, among other things, called for the development and adoption of a charter to structure and guide the work of the African Media Leaders Forum (AMLF). This particular Forum reflects an ongoing commitment by media owners to critically reflect and seek common ground on the problems and prospects that the media industry in Africa is facing.

 

As a platform aimed at critical reflection and common problem-solving, along with concerted high-profile advocacy for an enabling macro-economic and socio-political environment in which media institutions can thrive, this particular Forum has set itself six specific tasks, all of which are intertwined. Therefore, this Forum aims to: 

• Analyse and articulate the possible futures of the practice of journalism in Africa in an age of radical new-media and technological change, drawing on examples from other parts of the world;
• Based upon the analysis above, envision and pinpoint new media business models;
• Consider the evolving media development sector and the possibilities for financing the media ventures that it engenders;
• Critically relate media to the overall governance agenda in Africa, including debating the merits and demerits of media as a 'fourth estate';
• Analyse the implications of monetizing content for the development agenda; and
• Explore the African Media Initiative (AMI) as a strategy for an improved media landscape. 

A related objective as signalled above, is the presentation of the draft AMLF charter, with a view to endorsing it for immediate implementation.

 

Wednesday, November  4th
12h00 - 19h00	Registration
19h00	Welcome Reception - Hosted by the Lagos State Government
Speakers	Nduka Obaigbena - Founding Chairman: AMLF and CEO THISDAY
	Eric Chinje - Co-President AMLF, Manager External Relations, World Bank, African Region
	Amadou Mahtar Ba – Co-President AMLF, AMI Acting Executive, Director and President AllAfrica Global Media
	His Excellency Babatunde Fashola - Executive Governor of Lagos State
Thursday, November 5th
07h30	Registration
08h30 - 09h45	Opening Ceremony
Chair	His Excellency, Jonathan Goodluck - Vice President: Federal Republic of Nigeria
Speakers	Nduka Obaigbena - Founding Chairman: AMLF and CEO THISDAY
	Amadou Mahtar Ba – Co-President AMLF, AMI Acting Executive Director and President AllAfrica Global Media
	Eric Chinje - Co-President AMLF, Manager External Relations, World Bank Africa Region
	Chief Ajibola Ogunshola – President: Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria
	Alhaji Abubakar Jijiwa – Chairman: Broadcasting Association of Nigeria
	His Excellency, Jonathan Goodluck - Vice President: Federal Republic of Nigeria
09h45 - 10-00	Coffee Break
10h00 - 10h10	Forum overview: Prof Fackson Banda – Forum General Co-ordinator
10h10 - 12h00	Plenary - WHAT ARE THE POSSIBLE FUTURES OF JOURNALISM WITH THE EMERGENCE OF NEW MEDIA?
Keynote Speech	Ted Koppel - Journalist,Former ABC`s Nightline Anchor, Former Managing Editor at Discovery Channel and currently NPR and BBC Senior news analyst
Panel	Oh Yeon Ho - Founder and CEO: Ohmynews Co, South Korea
	Dr Tamela Hultman - Co-founder and Chief Content Officer: AllAfrica Global Media (AllAfrica.com) and Founding Director Centre for Africa and the Media at Duke University
	Dele Olojede – Journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner
	Prof. John Lavine – Dean: Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University
Moderator	Nduka Obaigbena – CEO: THISDAY and Founding Chairman AMLF
12h00 - 14h00	Networking Lunch
14h00 - 16h00	Plenary - MEDIA AND GOVERNANCE: MYTHS AND REALITIES OF A FOURTH ESTATE
Keynote Speech	Arianna Huffington – Journalist and co-founder: The Huffington Post, USA
Panel	Pius Njawe - CEO and Founder: Le Messager, Cameroon
	Omar Ben Yedder - Associate Group Publisher , IC Publications
	Robert Kabushenga – CEO: New Vision, Uganda
	Trevor Ncube - CEO: Mail & Guardian, South Africa
	Prof Kwame Karakari - Executive Director: Media Foundation of West Africa, Ghana
Moderator	Charlayne Hunter Gault - Co-Chair: Board of Trustees, AMI
16h00 - 16h15	Coffee Break
16h15 - 18h00	Plenary - MEDIA DEVELOPMEN: FINANCING MEDIA VENTURES
Panel	Tayo Aderinokun - Group Managing Director: Guarantee Trust Bank, Nigeria
	Trevor Ncube – CEO: Mail & Guardian, South Africa
	George Twumasi – CEO: African Broadcasting Network, UK
	Kate Senye – CEO: Southern Africa Media Development Fund, Namibia
Moderator	Marie Roger Biloa – CEO: Africa International, France
19h30	Gala Dinner
Friday, November 6th
08h30 - 10h30	Plenary - CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN A DIGITAL WORLD: ENVISIONING NEW MEDIA BUSINESS MODELS
Keynote Speech	Prof. John Lavine – Dean: Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University
Panel	Charlie Beckett – Director: POLIS, London School of Economics, UK
	Cristiana Falcone - World Economic Forum, Director Media, Entertainment  and Information Industries
	Reed Kramer – Co-Founder and CEO: AllAfrica Global Media (AllAfrica.com)
	Chris Kabwato - Director: Highway Africa, South Africa
Moderator	Linus Gitahi – CEO: Nation Media Group, Kenya
10h30 - 10h45	Coffee Break
10h45 - 12h30	Plenary - MONETIZATION OF CONTENT AND THE IMPERATIF DEVELOPMENT AGENDA
	Introductory remarks Dr Akinwumi Adesina - VP Alliance: A Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)
Panel	John Lavine – Dean: Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University
	Ramanou Kouferidji – CEO: Imanle Radio and TV, Benin
	Alhadji Abubakar Jijiwa – Chairman: Broadcasting Association of Nigeria
	Andrew Mwenda - CEO, The Independent Magazine, Uganda
Moderator	Collin Mukete – CEO: Spectrum Media Group, Cameroon
12h30 - 13h30	Plenary - STRATEGY FOR AN IMPROVED MEDIA LANDSCAPE: THE AFRICAN MEDIA INITIATIVE (AMI)
	Amadou Mahtar Ba - Acting Executive Director: AMI
	Eric Chinje – Trustee: AMI
Chair	Charlayne Hunter Gault - Co-Chair: Board of Trustees, AMI
	Trevor Ncube - Co-Chair: Board of Trustees, AMI
13h30 - 14h30	Lunch
14h30 - 15h30	DISCUSSION AND ADOPTION OF A CHARTER FOR THE AFRICAN MEDIA LEADERS FORUM
Presenter	Presenter: Prof Fackson Banda - SAB LTD-UNESCO Chair of Media & Democracy, School of Journalism and Media Studies, Rhodes University
Chair	Boureima Jeremie Sigue - Directeur General: des Edition "Le Pays"
15h30 - 15h45	Coffee Break
15h45 - 16h30	ADOPTION OF THE LAGOS DECLARATION AND CLOSING CEREMONY
Chair	Sam Amuka – Publisher: Vanguard Newspaper, Nigeria
	Nduka Obaigbena – CEO: THISDAY, AMLF Founding Chairman
	FORUM CLOSES

Using ICTs To Cover Mozambique Elections 2009 - African Elections Project leads the way

 

                                      Press Release

For immediate release

Maputo, Mozambique, October 28^th 2009

As Mozambicans heads to the polls today Wednesday 28^th October to elect president, legislators and provincials leaders, African Elections Project (AEP) is covering this election at its flagship website: www.africanelections.org/mozambique , via twitter at http://twitter.com/mozambiquevotos, providing SMS service powered by frontlinesms and also watching the media through its media monitoring system. Mozambique coverage comes after AEP's successful coverage of Botswana's 10^th general election which took place October 16 2009. In Southern Africa, AEP is also scheduled to cover Namibia's elections www.africanelections.org/namibia   from 28th to 29th November 2009 as well. The Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa www.osisa.org is providing funding for these countries coverage.

 

Ruling party, Frenmte de Libertação de Moçambique FRELIMO (the Liberation Front of Mozambique) candidate and sitting President Armando Guebuza is running for a second term and is highly expected to win. FRELIMO since the country independence in 1975 has dominated Mozambican political space. For the opposition parties, longtime opposition leader Afonso Dhlakama from Resistência Nacional de Moçambique(RENAMO) Mozambican National Resistance, is a strong contender in this race. The third largest opposition party Movimento Democrático de Moçambique(MDM) Mozambique Democratic Movement is also contesting the polls with Davis Simango as its presidential candidate.

Prior to the elections coverage, AEP in conjunction with its partners, Media Institute For Southern Africa (MISA) www.misa.org  Mozambique held a two-day workshop aimed at equipping journalists with cutting edge Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) skills in elections coverage in Maputo from 6-8 October 2009.

AEP was established in 2008 to empower journalists to cover elections using Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) across the continent. After a successful take-off in Ghana, Cote d' Ivoire, Mozambique, Malawi and Guinea, AEP also launched its Namibia phase of the project in Windhoek on 13th October 2009.

The African Elections Project is coordinated by Ghana based International Institute for ICT Journalism (www.penplusbytes.org) working hand in hand with key partners.

 

Signed

Egidio Vaz Raposo

Associate Editor

Namibia Elections 2009 : Introducing Namibia election bloggers

Namibia will hold presidential and national assembly elections on 27 and 28 Novermber, 2009. A number of Namibian journalists will use blogs to report and monitor the elections. The journalists attended a two-day ICT workshop organised by African Elections Project in collaboration with the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) in Windhoek, Namibia. We are introducing these new bloggers to you.

Martha Matongo's blog goes by her name, Marth Matongo. She notes that members of the main opposition, RDP, want Namibia to learn some lessons from Zimbabwe:

Most of the SWAPO members who stays in Ovambo Location and Oshandumbala of Katutura (Windhoek) expect that RDP loose and not get even a seat in Parliament. Approached by Mrs Emilia Tuhadeleni the heard person of Oshandumbala convienced me to get a ticket of SWAPO and encouraged me to go to her house to fill inn the forms.

Being not in the mood, i said i would come any time. Rally for Democracy supporters who are mostly not Oshiwambo speaking expect that their party gets some seats and they will totally support it as they want what happened to Mr Mugabe of Zimbabwe come to their country also.

"We have been in SWAPO for such a long time but but no change come to our region" they say.

Mulolani discusses the controversy surrounding the tender to print ballot papers. The tender was awarded to Namprint, a company owned by the ruling party, Swapo:

The withdrawal of the NamPrint tender by the Electoral Commission of Nambia(ECN) is a welcome move.
Th fact that the tender has been withdrawn after pressure from various political parties that are contesting the elections is a sure sign that the credibility of elections was going to be questioned.
The other important aspect to consider is that the political parties did well in threatening to boycott the elections because obviously they were expressing their democratic right and it was definitely an irregularity to award Namprint the tender given that its a SWAPO owned company.The award was simply going to jeopardise the whole electoral process which ws not going to be a good thing for the country's democracy,even Namibia is still a growing democracy.

Ndahafa reports that two opposition parties, DTA and MAG, plan to take legal actions against the Electoral Commission in Namibia because the tender that was given to Namprint:

The opposition DTA and MAG will take lagal actions against the Electoral commision in Namibia because of the tender that was awarded to the SWAPO party company "NAMPRINT" to print ballot papers for the upcoming elections in November. The two oppositions has refused to accept the awarding of the tender and want it to be awarded to a company that is not linked to the ruling party. They have given the commission until 17h00 yesterday to rescind the decision. The opposition will meet today to consult a way forward if they do not receive any reaction by 17h00.

Pedro discusses the political environment in Namibia:

The Republic of Namibia is known as one of the most peaceful and democratic countries in Africa but the recent happenings has proven how dangerous politics can be when diagnosed with election fever.

Election is the key element or ingredient of a democratic country, therefore, as a Journalism student, living and studying in Namibia for almost three years, I could not let the general elections passby without expressing my humble opinion in the matter as an international observer.

Just like in many African countries, the pre-election stage was marked by a lack of effectiveness from the Electoral Commission when it comes to the delivery of voters registration materials. Unfortunate or fortunately there is always someone to be blamed for mistakes, and this time the Electoral Commision allegedly blamed the Government for not making the vehicles available on time.

There is also a critical element that became a culture, especially in SADC region, where the ruling political parties always have more broadcasting airtime and coverage compared to other parties, and Namibia is no exception.

Consequently, the other political parties criticised the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) for unfair election campaign coverage towards the other political parties

Vikitoria writes about hate speech in political campaigns in the country:

As the country leads up to its National and Presidential elections in November this year, political parties campaigning to get 'the vote' have left nothing unearthed, blame and derogatory comments about each other has become the order of the day.

At a recent Swapo Party rally in the Omungwelume constituency in Northern Namibia, Secretary General of Swapo, Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana in what can only be regarded as promoting xenophobic behaviour amongst the Namibian population, referred to the Editor of the Namibian daily newspaper, Gwen Lister as a 'big snake in Namibia.'

Iivula -Itana further warned lister that if she is not careful about what she writes about when it comes to Swapo leaders and other Namibians, she will be taken to task for the wrong doings committed by her white ancestors.

Some politica parties are conducting campaigns at the University of Namibia contrary to university regulations, writes Etuna:

Some political parties in Namibia conducted campaign at the University of Namibia (UNAM)'s hostels. The UNAM's SRC president Job Amupada told local media on Tuesday that the Rally for Democratic Party (RDP) members are campaigning door to door at the insititution on Monday.
Amupada said this is prohibited at the institution and it disturbed students as they are preparing for November examinations.
"Political parties are not allowed to conduct campaigns or rallies in the institutions," he said.

Mervin: http://africanelections.org/namibia/blogs/?archive&blog=Election In Namibia

The Electoran Commission has started the exercise of entering statistical data from voters' roll:

The Electoral Commssion of was during the past days busy with entering the statistical data and information gained from the registration of voters activity which ended last week. The Electoral Commission therefore hired additional staff in order to carry this excercise, the activity is expected to be completed in the next two weeks.

The data will help the Commission in recording the number of registered voters per region and constitituency, and thus will make the voting processs at the end of the year much easier.

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/10/21/namibia-introducing-namibia-election-bloggers/

Botswana Elections 2009 : Monitoring Elections Using Blogs, SMS and Twitter

Parliamentary and council representative elections are taking place in Botswana today, October 16, 2009.

A number of journalists are using new media tools to report and monitor the elections. The team attended a two-day workshop organised by African Elections Project and Media Institute of Southern Africa (Botswana Chapter) in Gaborone on 28-29 September 2009.

All African Elections Project bloggers are first time bloggers. Blogging has not yet become popular in Botswana as in other African countries such as Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, Liberia and South Africa.

Filling The Gap is an interactive blog by Ephraim Keoreng, a Botswana based socio-political journalist.

His latest post is titled, Five Foreign Judges Sit On Motswaledi Appeal:

Five judges from South Africa today sat over an appeal by suspended ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) secretary general Gomolemo Motswaledi.

Motswaledi had sought the courts to seek redress over the president's decision to suspend him from the party. the 60 day suspension has made it impossible for the secretary geenral who was expected to represent the party at the Gaborone Central constituency as MP candidate, to be nominated to IEC as the deadline has since passed (whilst he was still under suspension).

Kutlwano Tina Mosime blogs at Free & Fair is Straight Up!

We believe in a free and fair electoral system and don't condone vote rigging. We are Watching: Botswana General Elections, 16 October 2009.

Kutlwano posts a press release from the Botswana Team of the African Elections Project:

The African Elections Project (AEP) www.africanelections.org will be covering Botswana's 10th general election, taking place on October 16 2009, to elect parliamentary and council representatives. AEP in conjunction with its partners, Media Institute For Southern Africa (MISA) www.misa.org held a two-day workshop aimed at equipping journalists with cutting edge Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) skills in elections coverage in Gaborone on 28-29 September 2009.

Keeping an Eye on 2009 Botswana General Elections is written by Tshiamo Tabane:

This blog will give readers such as reseachers, analysts and other interested readers imperative information concerning, Botswana 2009 General elections. This blog will also highlight on controversial issues associated with elections.

His latest entry is about election related court cases:

The 2009 Botswana General elections are surronded by court cases including the president of the president of the ruling party Ian Khama suspending the seccretary general of the party Gomolemo Motswaledi.

Kaombona is a senior reporter with Echo Newspaper. He blogs at Talking Elections 2009.

He writes about financial problems facing local observers:

Local election observer mission Botswana Electoral Support Network (BESnet) which is made up of non governmental organisations say they are faced with financial limitations which will compel them not to observe elections in all the polling stations around the country.

The Elections Bug blog is written by Jowawa Mothusi, a 2nd year Journalism student at Limkokwing University and a freelance journalist for Mmegi Youth News as well as Inner City News.

Soldiers encouraged to vote, he writes:

The Commander of the Botswana Defence Force Army Commander General Tebogo Masire has taken to the road on an end of year mission aimed at addressing all the army officers in the country…The address to the soldiers encouraged them to go out and exercise their democratic right by voting for their preferred representatives. He however cautioned the army officers against taking any political affiliation and instead remain as neutral as they could possibly be. The soldiers are expected to be among the security eyes during and after the election process to guard against any infiltration of the Electoral Act.

Patricia Maganu blogs at The Observer 2009.

While she was attending ICT training, she wrote about the importance of using new technologies to monitor elections in Africa:

I am about to complete the course on elections using ICTs and i muct say that i appreciate what PenPlusBytes and Africa Elections Project (AEP)is doing for African countries as far as this issue is concerned. God knows for how long African countries have been missing such tools to get information as instantly as possible to the people on the ground who really need it.

Bontle Tshukudu blogs at Battle Ground Open: Elections 2009. She writes about herself and her desire to see a free and fair elections in Botswana:

My name is Bontle Tshukudu, a reporter for UB Horizon newspaper.It covers news affecting students and staff in university of Botswana.Its a practice ground for young writers to polish their writing skills hence gain confidence.

i will be covering election process in Botswana and ensuring that they are free and fair. For the first time in history young Batswana have registered to vote in large numbers. Some may wonder what really urged them to register in large numbers? Is it the pintch of unempolyment, under or misemployment, lack of sponsership to further their studies, or is it that now they know its important to vote?

You can see the full list of bloggers expected to report and monitor the Botswana 2009 Elections here.

The bloggers are also sending text messages of what is happening in polling stations around the country. The messages are posted on African Elections Project Twitter page for Botswana.

They are also posting videos of events and incidents related to Elections 2009.

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/10/16/botswana-monitoring-elections-using-blogs-sms-and-twitter/

African Elections Project to Cover Botswana Elections 2009

                                                     Press Release

For immediate release

GABORONE Botswana, October 15 2009 –

African Elections Project To Cover Botswana Elections 2009.

The African Elections Project (AEP) www.africanelections.org/bostwana will be covering Botswana's 10^th general election, taking place on October 16 2009, to elect parliamentary and council representatives.  AEP in conjunction with its partners, Media Institute For Southern Africa (MISA) www.misa.org  held a two-day workshop aimed at equipping journalists with cutting edge Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) skills in elections coverage in Gaborone on 28-29 September 2009.

AEP was established in 2008 to empower journalists to cover elections using Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) across the continent. After a successful take-off in Ghana, Cote d' Ivoire, Mozambique, Malawi and Guinea, AEP also launched its Namibia phase of the project in Windhoek on 13th October 2009.

In Southern Africa, AEP is covering Botswana www.africanelections.org/botswana  elections schedule to take place on 16th October 2009, Mozambique's elections www.africanelections.org/mozambique) taking place on 28th October 2009 and Namibia's elections www.africanelections.org/namibia  taking place from 28th to 29th November 2009. The  Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa www.osisa.org is providing funding for these countries coverage.

The role of the media in ensuring free and fair elections is indispensable. All over the world the media is playing this important role of ensuring free and fair elections by working with all stakeholders across board.

The media can strengthen the electoral process by providing independent information through impartial coverage. Three important focal issues come into play: access to information on the political process, ability to undertake investigative journalism and documentation of lessons and experiences from the electioneering process.

The African Elections Project is coordinated by Ghana based  International Institute for ICT Journalism (www.penplusbytes.org) working hand in hand with key partners.

AEP Botswana

Associate Editor

Bay Tsimane

African Elections Project launched in Namibia

Press Release, for immediate release

Windhoek, Namibia 14th October 2009 - African Elections Project launched in Namibia

A two day workshop aimed at equipping journalists with cutting edge Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) skills in elections
coverage took place in Windhoek; recently as Namibia prepare to go the polls on 27-28 November 2009 to elect parliamentary representatives and president.

The workshop was organized by African Elections Project www.africanelections.org in conjunction with Media Institute for Southern
Africa (MISA) www.misa.org with funding from Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa. www.osisa.org

The role of the media in ensuring free and fair elections is indispensable. All over the world the media is playing this important role of ensuring free
and fair elections by working with all stakeholders across board. The media can strengthen the electoral process by providing independent information
through impartial coverage. Three important focal issues come into play: access to information on the political process, ability to undertake
investigative journalism and documentation of lessons and experiences from the electioneering process. To enable Journalists stay on top of these
issues, African Elections Project was established in year 2008 to empowered journalists to cover elections using Information and Communication
Technologies (ICTs) across the continent.

After a successful take-off in Ghana, Cote d' Ivoire, Mozambique, Botswana, Malawi and Guinea, the African Elections Project (AEP) launched its Namibia phase of the project in Windhoek on 13th October 2009. The Namibian project has the following key components: Training for journalists; development and dissemination of an election guide for the media, an SMS/Mobile application in election coverage and monitoring; information and knowledge Online Portal (www.africanelections.org/namibia ) and Knowledge products for the media and Media Content Monitoring. In Southern Africa, AEP is covering Botswana www.africanelections.org/botswana elections schedule to take place on 16th October 2009 and Mozambique's elections www.africanelections.org/mozambique taking place on 28th October 2009.

At the opening ceremony of Namibia's workshop, MISA's regional director, Kaitira Kandjii, said " we are excited to be part of this project since it will go a long way to provide capacity building for journalists in the use of ICTs tools in elections coverage thereby playing a contributory role in achieving free and fair elections"

The African Elections Project is coordinated by the International Institute for ICT Journalism (www.penplusbytes.org) working hand in hand with key partners.

Signed

AEP Communications Department