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State of the media in Southern Africa 2002
5. ICTs and the upgrading of human capacity are increasingly considered to be
agents for development. It is, therefore, critical to ensure equal access and
gender equity in the Information Society. Increased access to ICTs can uplift
African women’s livelihood through:
* Greater access to and control of local and international markets for African
women producers and traders;
* Employment and other profit-related opportunities which do not require a
physical presence thereby allowing women to combine the care economy with
their professional roles;
* Promotion of health, nutrition, education and other human development opportunities;
* The capacity to mobilise for women’s empowerment and societal well being.
Press Statement
December 3, 2002
TOPIC: State of broadcasting in SADC
A workshop attended by participants from broadcasting regulators, national
broadcasters and parliamentarians drawn from Angola, Botswana, Malawi,
Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, was hosted in Namibia by the
Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) and the Southern African Broadcasting
Association (SABA) in co-operation with the Fredrich Ebert Stiftung,
from November 27 to 29, 2002 with the main objective to assess the state of
broadcasting in Southern Africa.
Policy Framework
The workshop acknowledged southern African and African policy documents
as yardsticks to discuss current processes of broadcasting reform in the SADC
region, in particular, the
* SADC Protocol on Culture, Information and Sport;
* African Charter on Broadcasting;
* SADC Declaration on Information and Communications Technology;
* Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa adopted by the
African Commission on Human and People’s Rights.
2002
In particular the workshop dealt with the following principles:
* The provision of the SADC ICT declaration to create a three tier separation of
powers in the regulation of telecommunications and broadcasting, with the government
responsible for a conducive national policy framework, independent
regulators responsible for licensing and a multiplicity of providers. They agreed
that the national framework should offer a broad legislative basis that should be
developed in a participatory process involving all stakeholders and the public at
large, to be implemented by the regulator.
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