Twenty years after the Windhoek Declaration on press freedom

and <strong>the</strong> influence of certain global
developments in <strong>the</strong> promotion of
rights, to promulgate collectively,
at <strong>the</strong> level of regional inter-state
bodies (such as <strong>the</strong> African Union,
Ecowas and SADC), mechanisms and
instruments that offer opportunities
for enhancing advocacy to promote
rights. It is only by using <strong>the</strong>m
effectively and regularly that citizens
and <strong>the</strong>ir organisations can
streng<strong>the</strong>n and make relevant <strong>the</strong>se
instruments and mechanisms (or
institutions).
That is why <strong>the</strong> MFWA and o<strong>the</strong>r
groups have taken up opportunities
for observer status to work with
<strong>the</strong> African Commission on Human
and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) to
advance freedom of expression in
Africa. It has been a platform to
lay complaints and expose rights
violations by states, and to advance
continent-wide civil society collaboration
to promote rights causes.
Thus <strong>the</strong> MFWA also joined Article
19, <strong>the</strong> Media Institute of Sou<strong>the</strong>rn
Africa, Media Rights Agenda, and
several o<strong>the</strong>rs to work with <strong>the</strong>
ACHPR to get <strong>the</strong> African Union to
adopt <strong>the</strong> <strong>Declaration</strong> of Principles
on Freedom of Expression in Africa
in 2002.
The MFWA’s landmark successful
litigation at <strong>the</strong> Ecowas Community
Court of Justice is an example of a
successful, immediately impactful
use of a regional mechanism to
defend and protect individual
journalists’ rights against state
abuses. Under its programme of
Legal Defence for Journalists and
Media, <strong>the</strong> MFWA took two cases
to <strong>the</strong> Ecowas court against <strong>the</strong>
government of The Gambia. One
was to get <strong>the</strong> court in 2007 to
demand that <strong>the</strong> Gambian state
produces Chief Ebrima Manneh,
who had been “disappeared” for
more than two <strong>years</strong> following his
arrest by state security operatives.
The second was to seek judgment
144 | Media in Africa - 2011
in 2009 in a case of <strong>the</strong> torture
of Musa Saidhykan, editor of
The Independent newspaper, by
Gambian state security agents.
In both cases <strong>the</strong> court found
<strong>the</strong> Gambian government guilty
and awarded compensation to
<strong>the</strong> victims, though <strong>the</strong> regime
of President Yahya Jammeh has
refused to comply with <strong>the</strong> rulings.
These cases and o<strong>the</strong>rs taken up
or supported in national courts in
The Gambia, Burkina Faso, Niger,
Sierra Leone and Senegal, were all
pursued by lawyers participating
in <strong>the</strong> MFWA’s regional “Network
of Lawyers for <strong>the</strong> Defence of
Journalists and Media in West
Africa”, set up in 2000. The national
cases ranged from seeking
justice in <strong>the</strong> illegal closure of
radio stations and newspapers and
murder of journalists, to defence
against charges based upon <strong>the</strong>
criminalisation of media content.
On a continent as vast and with
such hugely critical needs of
rights promotion as Africa, no
individual organisation, however
resourced, can make much headway
advancing rights issues alone on
a national and regional scale. The
effective approach is advisedly
through partnerships, coalitions
and networks of any sort. But while
that is also full of frustrations and
challenges – some of which tend
to be discouraging – it can be said
that MTWA’s most important or
strongest strategic contribution to
<strong>the</strong> freedom of expression advocacy
movement in West Africa has been
to bring different groups toge<strong>the</strong>r
or join o<strong>the</strong>rs in campaigns. These
have been to push for rights
promotion, improve conditions for
media freedom, and to support
post conflict media development
projects.
An attempt to bring toge<strong>the</strong>r key
African freedom of expression ad-
vocacy groups into a kind of standing
consultative forum for cooperation
and strategic planning, called
<strong>the</strong> “Network of African Freedom
of Expression Organisations”, did
not survive beyond three <strong>years</strong>. The
experience, learned ra<strong>the</strong>r late, was
that for various reasons such cooperative
efforts are best pursued and
sustained around specific issues and
<strong>the</strong>matic projects.
This logic had been proven right in
<strong>the</strong> continent-wide collaboration of
several groups to work with Article
19 and <strong>the</strong> ACHPR to develop and
get <strong>the</strong> AU to adopt <strong>the</strong> <strong>Declaration</strong>
of Principles on Freedom of
Expression in Africa, in 2002. It was
also <strong>the</strong> same basis for <strong>the</strong> success
of <strong>the</strong> broad coalition called <strong>the</strong>
“Partnership for Media and Peacebuilding
in West Africa” initiated
by <strong>the</strong> MFWA and <strong>the</strong> Copenhagenbased
International Media Support
(IMS) to support media development
activities in <strong>the</strong> conflict-devastated
countries in <strong>the</strong> region. Some of <strong>the</strong>
key initiatives under this programme
included media law reform activities
that have resulted, for instance, in
<strong>the</strong> recent passage of a right to
information law by <strong>the</strong> Liberian
legislature.
The partnership was resurrected
in January 2011 in response to <strong>the</strong>
recent post-election conflicts in Cote
d’Ivoire. Working with Ivorian media
leaders, <strong>the</strong> coalition is developing
a programme of interventions to
support rebuilding of <strong>the</strong> media
in <strong>the</strong> country, promote enhanced
media freedom conditions through
legislative reform and advance media
professionalism so as to minimise <strong>the</strong>
extreme sectarianism that fed into
that country’s conflicts.
Collaboration with o<strong>the</strong>r organisations
to intervene in conflict situations
has not been limited to West
Africa. Throughout <strong>the</strong> political crises
in Zimbabwe, when free speech
and related rights were under bloody