1. PRACTITIONERS – Thursday 20 April – Wednesday 3 May.
2. OWNERS – Thursday 4 – Wednesday 17 May.
3. TRAINERS – Thursday 18 – Wednesday 31 May.
4. SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS – Thursday 1 – Wednesday 14 June.
5. SUPPORT ORGANIZATIONS – Thursday 15 – Wednesday 28 June.
In the final 2 weeks of the electronic consultation, issues raised will be revisited, and participants will be asked to clarify and flesh out their proposals.
To view the discussion go to
The ‘Media Support’ segment of the e-consultation is now at an end. The Moderation Team is in the process of preparing a report highlighting your contributions in some detail, and this report will be sent to you by e-mail in the near future. In the meantime, please find below a short summary of the Recommendations and Proposals that have emerged from this e-consultation. The e-consultation will remain open to provide you with the opportunity of elaborating on existing recommendations and proposals, and adding new proposals not covered so far. Each participant will be allowed a single posting. Only concrete proposals will be approved.
For those of you who may have been having problems receiving emails from the dgroup, please go directly to to catch up on recent contributions.
Many thanks for taking part, and best wishes
The Moderation Team
‘Strengthening Africa’s Media’
Media Ownership:
- Conduct analysis of different models of media funding and co/ownership to inform strategies for economic sustainability of African media.
- Develop and enact an African code of conduct for media owners.
- Put in place measures to ensure media owners remunerate their journalists fairly.
- Provide more generous operational budgets for researching stories.
- Enact media freedom /freedom of information/ and diversification/ pluralism laws.
- Exempt non-profit media from government taxes.
Media Practitioners:
- Call for the revision of repressive media laws.
- Develop and enact a regional code of ethics for journalists.
- Promote self-regulation of media practice.
- Establish more professional networks (such as the African Economic Editors Network).
- Establish a regional award for good journalism.
Media Training:
- Develop and implement value-added exchange programmes promoted within Africa.
- Set up an annual forum for media trainers, and put in place mechanisms for media trainers and the media industry to interact.
- Develop special needs training for managers and editorial staff in state-run media making the transition to public media.
- Develop in-house training policy for media houses that promotes sequential and on-going learning.
- Standardize training by providing competency testing and academic recognition.
- Utilize the knowledge and skills of retired media managers and editors to provide in-house support/training.
- Offer ICT training to media working in both rural and urban areas.
Media Support:
- Promote adoption by all African governments of the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa, African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights.
- Establish African media support organization-led mechanisms to monitor implementation of the Windhoek Declaration and other relevant declarations and protocols.
- Establish a Media Trust Fund to invest in media infrastructure, build capacity and strengthen coordination in media support by the Multilateral Development Banks.
