Twenty years after the Windhoek Declaration on press freedom

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and AIDS in any given society — such as unequal power relationships between men and women. Bringing <strong>the</strong>se issues to <strong>the</strong> surface is challenging: newsrooms are <strong>the</strong>mselves rarely bastions of gender equality. But progress is being made in all <strong>the</strong>se areas and, partly as a result of intensive interventions and media training, HIV reporting has made great quality strides in recent <strong>years</strong>. Health journalists in Africa also need to navigate difficult ethical and professional issues, particularly in terms of <strong>the</strong> rise of <strong>the</strong> ‘evidencebased medicine’ movement. How should journalists engage with this global movement, that is based on assumptions that ‘good science’ can be trusted to provide <strong>the</strong> best evidence of how diseases work, and what treatments are effective? The idea that medical science is unbiased is long discredited, but sifting through <strong>the</strong> hundreds of thousands of journal articles produced each year, and working out what <strong>the</strong> ‘best’ new evidence is, takes patience and training and tenacity. These insights have to be juggled with indigenous knowledge, and often with audiences’ reliance on health practioners who don’t operate in evidence-based paradigms, such as homeopaths (more Germans go to homeopaths than to GPs for routine health problems, just as in many Africa countries, traditional healers are often front-line choices for ailments). Journalist don’t want to be insensitive to cultural contexts, but all <strong>the</strong> evidence indicates, for example, that homeopathic and o<strong>the</strong>r nonscientific medicine has no impact on AIDS and most serious ailments. Not being straight about this truth is irresponsible. Too many people get ill and die because <strong>the</strong>y rely on treatments that are unscientific, whe<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong>se are hawked by big multinationals, or local ‘healers’. These challenges are core to <strong>the</strong> educational task that faces African media and African journalism schools. Health journalists are not only about being translators of complex science, and educators about health. They are also in <strong>the</strong> business of explaining public policy and health systems. “Health journalists in Africa also need to navigate difficult ethical and professional issues, particularly in terms of <strong>the</strong> rise of <strong>the</strong> ‘evidence-based medicine’ movement.” Getting all this right is very difficult. Initiatives such as specialised training courses offered by media and health promotion NGOs have made some impact. And <strong>the</strong> new honours degree in Health Journalism at South Africa’s Rhodes University is part of <strong>the</strong> greater specialisation that health journalism in many African countries needs a lot more of. Section 4: Access to Information Media in Africa - 2011 | 185
How African media, and journalism schools, can deal with cultural diversity By Dr Fackson Banda Dr Fackson Banda is Programme Specialist, Division for Freedom of Expression & Media Development (FEM), UNESCO. He was previously UNESCO-SAB Chair of Media and Democracy at <strong>the</strong> School of Journalism and Media Studies, Rhodes University. 186 | Media in Africa - 2011 According to <strong>the</strong> UNESCO World Report on Investing in Cultural Diversity and Intercultural Dialogue, intercultural dialogue is largely dependent on intercultural competencies, defined as <strong>the</strong> complex of abilities needed to interact appropriately with those who are different from oneself. In terms of promoting intercultural dialogue in Africa, an important element to consider is reflected in <strong>the</strong> UNESCO World Report when it argues that: “Dialogue should be seen not as involving a loss of self but as dependent upon knowing oneself and being able to shift between different frames of reference. It requires <strong>the</strong> empowerment of all participants through capacity building and projects that permit interaction without a loss of per-sonal or collective identity. (My emphasis). Clearly, intercultural dialogue seems to revolve around communication and capacity-building. Put differently: in order to promote intercultural dialogue, <strong>the</strong>re is need to build <strong>the</strong> communicative capacity of media actors. Here, journalism educa- tion plays an important role. Journalists, and journalism educators, can do a lot to promote cultural diversity and at <strong>the</strong> same time enabling citizens to see <strong>the</strong> commonalities that bind human beings toge<strong>the</strong>r, regardless of <strong>the</strong>ir geographical, racial, sexual, and o<strong>the</strong>r differences. Underpinning this challenge is <strong>the</strong> question of how <strong>the</strong> African media represent peoples and cultures. In this regard, <strong>the</strong>se outlets become a social institution through which a society learns about itself and builds a sense of community. In this way, Africa’s media contributes to <strong>the</strong> way in which “we” and <strong>the</strong> “o<strong>the</strong>r” see <strong>the</strong> world. The term “o<strong>the</strong>r” connotes a way of defining one’s own identity through <strong>the</strong> stigmatisation of “an-o<strong>the</strong>r”. Therefore, “we” and <strong>the</strong> “o<strong>the</strong>r” often becomes a dichotomy in societies where intolerance breeds, and where power relations are polarised between those who identify <strong>the</strong>mselves as “us” and <strong>the</strong> “o<strong>the</strong>r”. “It requires <strong>the</strong> empowerment of all participants through capacity building and projects that permit interaction without a loss of personal or collective identity.” The role of <strong>the</strong> media should become one of building bridges between <strong>the</strong> “we” and <strong>the</strong> “o<strong>the</strong>r”, but not in a way that obliterates or frowns upon difference. Indeed, it is a reasonable
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MEDIA IN AFRICA Twenty</str
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This work is licensed under <strong
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A small publisher gets technology t
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Foreword By Janis Karklins Janis Ka
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This is MISA By Kaitira Kandjii Kai
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overview overvie Overview
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What then have bee
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and the results we
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critical to journalism as well as t
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matters. Some people could, for ins
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two publications for six months on
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4.2.2 Criminal defamation A major o
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as they made point
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Journalists at work, interviewing S
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5.4 Tabloid success One area where
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Journalists is that its strength re
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proposed codes not only for African
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Studies; African Communication Rese
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Overview Correlating this picture i
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that nourish journalism are not end
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watchdogs. A profile of Ugandan jou
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FREEDOM Freedom
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independent Namibia, set th
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Sierra Leone 39. Mr. Paul Kamara, E
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media that was independent of gover
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The February working session includ
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Media making for socio-political de
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timate the importa
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in corruption. The international co
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African journalists need protection
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Tribute to a committed photojournal
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Section 1: Freedom Anton Hammerl, a
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African media should inspire unders
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information and the</strong
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majority of the ca
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party of President Robert Mugabe to
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But the legacy of
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A visitor to Harare on a cold 19 Ju
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PLURALIS
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At the time, <stro
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Circulation of newspapers in South
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Misreading the mar
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African media have generally perfor
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Around Africa, the
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Community radio stations across Afr
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Fresh air-waves in Zambia By Mike D
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and consequently undermines media c
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How we started The Observer By Jame
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Audience research is essential By G
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to adopt applications beyond basic
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most popular stories, readers could
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While CJs are encouraged to monitor
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to become commercially viable. O<st
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visuals and easy-to-read text). The
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INDEPENDEN INDEPENDENCE
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elow US$ 5-million. This was <stron
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Challenges of organising journalist
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The Zambian National Broadcasting C
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Twenty years after the Windhoek Declaration on press freedom

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