June 12, 2003
From Grahamstown

For media to play a central part in sustainable development, journalists must be free and technologically-empowered, the Highway Africa 2002 conference meeting in Johannesburg has agreed.

The stance is spelled out in a document titled "A Charter on African media and the Digital Divide", which was adopted by Highway Africa conference delegates from 22 African countries on Friday. The document will be fed into the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) as well as the UN Summit on the Information Society in Geneva next year. It calls for the creation of an African information society that addresses the hurdles to continental development, and which also puts African issues on the global agenda. "With the Charter, conference participants have said they want the WSSD to recognise the critical importance of press freedom and new media technologies like the Internet," said prof Guy Berger, head of the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University. SABC and the Rhodes journalism school are joint organisers of the 6th Highway Africa conference, which was held at the National Electronic Media Institute of SA and was attended by 250 delegates.

The Highway Africa Charter calls on African governments to "promote respect for freedom of expression, diversity and the free flow of information and ideas, including affordable access to telephones, email, Internet and other telecommunications systems." It encourages media to "popularise, publicise and promote public debate on the development of national information and communications policies and infrastructure." African media are also urged to foster a debate about the use of free "open-source" software for computers, versus proprietary products such as Microsoft programmes.

"The Charter recommends increased dissemination of African content in a wide range of African languages, as well as training opportunities for African journalists to learn new media skills," said Berger. He envisages that media and civil society organisations will use the Charter as a lobbying tool and a blueprint for enhancing the role of journalists in sustainable development.

The full text of the Charter is online at www.highwayafrica.org.za Highway Africa, an official parallel event of the Summit, also included a televised award ceremony for the innovative use of new media in Africa. Winners were kiSwahili news-site Africaleo.com and Zimbabwean Ngo site, Kubatana.