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African Media
Leaders Meet in Lagos
By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, Ghanadot
Accra, Nov 10, Ghanadot - Over 185 African media owners'participated in a
two-day "African Media Leaders Forum (AMLF)" to discuss
practical ways for strengthening Africa's media development and
agreed on a
charter for the African Media Initiative (AMI), a parent body
that is working to improve the media sector across Africa.
"Media have a central role to play in nurturing democracy on the
African continent," said Nduka Obaigbena, CEO and
Editor-in-Chief of THISDAY, one of Africa's leading newspapers.
"The African Media Leaders Forum is committed to
improving the business environment for media and to
strengthening skills
of African journalists. The Lagos meeting will serve as a launch
pad for concerted, collective actions to promote African media
development for the benefit of all." Mr. Nduka is the founding
chairman of the AMLF which held its first meeting in Dakar,
Senegal, one year ago.
The AMLF is the single-largest annual gathering of media owners
coming together to discuss development in Africa and the range
of cutting-edge issues affecting Africa's media industries, just
as the African continent is being buffeted by the global
financial crisis, deepening recessionary trends, and the advent
of new, social media technologies that are fundamentally
altering existing media business models all across the globe.
"The African Media Leaders Forum is a nascent body with an
ambitious agenda," said Amadou Mahtar Ba, Acting Executive
Director of the African Media Initiative (AMI).
"By convening the Forum in Nigeria, Africa's most
populous democracy, we are sending a message that the
strengthening of mass media systems is an urgent imperative for
societal advancement, and needs the support of governments,
business leaders, and civil society."
Headlined speakers at the Lagos meeting represented a Who's Who
of top print, broadcast, and online journalists, including Sam
Amuka (Vanguard, Nigeria), Oh Yeon Ho (Ohmynews, South Korea),
Arianna Huffington (The Huffington Post), Charlayne Hunter-Gault
(US National Public Radio), Ted Koppel (former anchor, ABC's
Nightline news), Tumi Magkabo (of Tumi & Co,
formerly with CNN), Trevor Ncube (South Africa's Mail &
Guardian), Dele Olojede (Pulitzer Prize winner), and others.
"We have urgent business, and that business is development,"
said Trevor Ncube, Deputy Executive Chairman, Mail & Guardian,
addressing his peers.
"Our role is to ensure that we participate in creating a
marketplace of ideas and that media is perceived as an integral
partner of the development process."
The Lagos meeting focused on six critical areas with a view to
developing shared literacy of the issues, and spurring
collective action:
Impact of new media technologies on the practice of journalism
across Africa drawing on lessons of experience from other parts
of the world; Need for new business models that are necessary to
grow and sustain Africa's media industries;
Finance for African media development including access to
venture capital, mitigating political risk through innovative
guarantee mechanisms, and creating capacity so that media
industries have broader access to various sources of capital;
Lining mass media to the overall governance agenda in Africa and
exploring ways in which the functioning of the fourth estate can
be improved; Monetizing media content for the development
agenda, and exploring the challenges and opportunities for
creating a value-added, sustainable source of revenue, and
Positioning the African Media Initiative (parent body of the
AMLF) as a broad-based partnership for improving the African
media sector and landscape.
An overarching objective of the Lagos meeting was to explore
ways in which the voices of the vast majority of Africans can be
better mobilized to create a new narrative that is centered on
wealth creation, away from the stereotypical view that
emphasizes problems and deficiencies at the expense
of opportunity.
The AMLF participants, representing the
continent's influential thinkers and doers, have a key role to
play in transforming the one-dimensional image that shortchanges
Africa into the more complex image that the continent deserves.
"New media are opening up new opportunities to expand the
dialogue on the role of media in sustainable development across
Africa," said Eric Chinje, Manager, Africa Region External
Affairs, The World Bank.
"Now, more than ever before, is the time to
create a new wealth narrative that can help improve the everyday
lives of millions of Africans who yearn for economic
opportunity, knowledge, and cultural expression."
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