Against the background of war in Iraq, 106 participants from 26 countries and five continents joined in the International Communications Forum's (ICF) Cape Town conference, 'Changing Media for Changing Society', 5-9 April 2003. The meeting of journalists and other communicators was aimed at helping media become a greater force for peace, conflict resolution and justice.
It was the ICF's first African event, and was held in collaboration with major media and communication companies in South Africa. Many participants also toured the Robben Island prison where they saw the cell Nelson Mandela occupied before leading South Africa into a new era of free elections, free speech - and free press.
The conference keynote was sounded by ICF Founder-President William E. Porter who said, 'If we have the privilege of freedom of information, freedom to publish and present, I think we have to be concerned with the effect of our products, for good or ill, on the people who read, listen to and watch them. Are we pulling our audiences down or lifting them up?'
Porter is a former foreign correspondent who became a top executive in British book publishing. He urged journalists to take the high road in reporting in the emerging nations of Africa, covering what is going right as well as what may be going wrong.
Listeners heard from African journalists who'd risked heavy fines, jail or bodily harm from their governments to report the truth. Malawi Editor Rob Jamieson, for example, had to fight government attempts in four libel suits to silence him. Kenyan Bedan Mgugwa, editor of The People, was twice jailed. John Masuku, an independent broadcaster in Zimbabwe, had to flee for his life after his house burned and his station was closed.
The assembly at the Silvermist Mountain Lodge, just outside Cape Town, also included such key South African media figures as Raymond Louw, editor and publisher of the Southern Africa Report, John Mattison, editorial director of the embryonic This Day in Johannesburg, billed as South Africa's first national newspaper, and Jan Horn, a top documentary film producer. Another was Mahmood Sanglay, editor of the Muslim News who was recently named a Hubert Humphrey Fellow for study in America.
Americans there included Matthew V. Storin, former editor of the Boston Globe and of the Chicago Sun-Times, Alan Kania, a Denver writer and journalism instructor, and National Public Radio's Terry Fitzpatrick, a Knight Fellow developing community radio in South Africa.
Among others from abroad was Anieszka Dzieduszycka, of Warsaw, documentary film producer for the Catholic Radio and Television Network.
Participants were guests at a reception and buffet one night at the President's House (South Africa's equivalent of the White House) attended also by members of the Communications Committee of the South African Parliament which meets in Cape Town.
ICF President Bernard Marguerite said mass media should give the public the information it needs to build and nurture democracy while promoting mutual understanding among peoples and cultures. In a separate message, 'The Media in Sad Times', he said, 'War is always the result of failure... We want our brothers and sisters in the Arab and Muslim world to know that this war is not the war of the Western and Christian world against them... Today's failure is also the failure of the media;. At the end of the road our mission, our great and simple mission is twofold: to inform honestly and broadly, in a balanced way, so that those who read us and listen to what we say, are able to understand what is happening in their town, in their country and in the world.'
Delegates at the event condemned what Marguerite said was the March 2 appeal by Angola's state-run newspaper, Journal de Angola, for Angolans to 'beat up or kill either slowly or at speed' remnant members of the UNITA rebel force who dare to remember Jonas Savimbi, their slain leader. In a resolution, the event participants also summoned the Angolan government to cease harassing journalists and to foster free press and free speech.
A number of attendees from abroad met later in Johannesburg with Gwen Ansell, executive director of the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism, exchanging ideas on short-term training programs. They were also guests at a luncheon at The Star newspaper where its key executives briefed them on social and economic conditions in the country. On a tour of the newsroom, Star Editor Moegsien Williams said one staffer was assigned exclusively to report on AIDS. Later, the visiting journalists met at This Day with Mattison and Justice Malala, editor of the paper set to debut soon. Mattison said the paper would produce quality journalism with a vision for Africa. The conference was sponsored by Telkom. Among other donors were the Ford Foundation, The Open Society Institute (run by George Soros), Johnic Publishing and Independent Newspapers.
English