Dans nombre de pays africains, la liberté de la presse est encore toute relative, et surtout vulnérable, menacée par le pouvoir ou fragilisée par les excès dont les médias eux-mêmes se rendent coupables. Dans ce contexte sont apparues les premières instances africaines d'autorégulation des
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médias, visant à faire respecter la déontologie, à forger dans l'esprit des journalistes une éthique de l'information et à engager la presse dans une dynamique de professionnalisation. En charge d'un programme d'appui aux instances africaines d’autorégulation financé par l'Union européenne, en collaboration avec la Fédération internationale des journalistes (Fij), l'Union des journalistes de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (UJAO) et l'Observatoire ivoirien (Observatoire de la liberté de la presse, de l'éthique et de la déontologie - Olped), le Gret a travaillé sur la question dans un objectif double : apporter des références sur l'autorégulation des médias et donner un éclairage sur les expériences naissantes en Afrique. Dans une première partie sont présentées les approches de l'autorégulation et différents mécanismes utilisés par les médias dans plusieurs pays du monde. La deuxième partie est consacrée aux instances africaines. Elle expose le fonctionnement de l'Observatoire béninois (Odem), analysant ses acquis et difficultés, puis étudie les défis à relever pour des instances qui, si elles veulent remplir pleinement leur mission, doivent se pérenniser.
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"Taking 14 radio serial dramas from around the world shows that many aspects of the way they are organised are not replicable: what works in one context would just not work in another. This is because of the very nature of pro-social media projects: they depend so much on the personal contacts of th
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e producers, and the specific needs and tastes of the target audience. A successful model for one country may well not work in another, simply because there are so many variables. Having presented this caveat, the following is a list of replicable features gleaned from the 14 projects studied. More detail about how these features work in practice can be found in each case-study. The features have been selected because they either show up strongly across all projects, have been singled out by project-holders as the key to their success, or because they seem to have the potential for translating across countries and sectors." (Recommendations, page 21)
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"The radio campaign ”I’m a child but I have my rights too!” is run by the organization Plan in Burkina Faso, Togo, Mali, Senegal och Guinea. The campaign contains of five-minute-long reports, taking place in an environment that children is well familiar with, often the African countryside wher
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e the village community is strong and each one has its special place. The campaign entertains and informs (edutainment) and it invites the listener to discuss and reflect. The reports are broadcast in co-operation with local and national radio stations. Children are not only a big target group of the campaign but also important actors during the production and broadcasting. The essay ”Communicating rights for children” is the result of a Minor Field Study in Senegal and Burkina Faso. It is a case study of children´s participation in production and broadcasting of the radio campaign ”I’m a child but I have my rights too!”. The study contains two parts, an analysis and interviews where children and adults share their experiences from participating in the campaign." (Summary)
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"Until the advent of African independence, Africans were not considered fitting subjects for historical research and their words, voices, and experiences were largely absent from the continent's history. In 13 lively and provocative essays focusing on all areas of Sub-Saharan Africa, oral sources ar
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e seen as a way to restore African expression to African history. African Words, African Voices evokes the richness and relevance of oral sources for understanding a complex past for readers at all levels." (Publisher description)
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"Kurze Darstellung und "lessons learned" von 7 Fallbeispielen, v.a. Radiosendern. Der Autor stellt u.a. fest: "Medienprojekte werden von westlichen NGOs erst dann gestartet, wenn ein gewaltsamer Konflikt vorbei ist. Medienprojekte mit ausgesprochenem Präventionscharakter sind nahezu unbekannt, auch
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wenn sie dringend nötig wären" (Seite 39). Er empfiehlt u.a. eine "Revitalisierung" der früheren GTZ-Medienarbeit, denn diese stelle eine "gelungene und international renommierte Mischung aus professioneller Beratung bei der Institutionalisierung von demokratischen Mediensystemen und Sozialarbeit mittels Medien" (Seite 47) dar." (commbox)
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"This working paper tells the story of the growth of independent radio for small enterprises in Uganda, and Ghana. It describes how the radio program Nekolera Gyange (I Run My Own Business) was initiated, how it engages and helps small enterprise listeners, and how it achieved commercial viability.
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The paper explains how the concept has been transferred to rural Uganda and to Ghana, and the adaptations that were made along the way. In order to assist others in initiating similar programs, the paper presents lessons learned and FIT strategy for supporting the development of more commercial SE radio programs around the world.." (Page vii)
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"In Nigeria, as in many other countries, limited numbers of extension agents (one to 4,000 farmers) make it impossible to reach all farmers by interpersonal means. For this reason, radio and, more recently, television have been used by agricultural organizations to disseminate relevant agricultural
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information to larger numbers of farm families at minimal cost and to areas hitherto not accessible to extension agents on a regular basis. While prior studies have confirmed that these radio programs have large audiences, there has been less attention to the perceptions farmers hold about the specific benefits these programs provide. The purpose of this study was to examine the performance of two long-running Nigerian agricultural programs, one for radio and the second for TV, as perceived by 198 randomly selected farmers in Oyo State of southwest Nigeria. Results indicate a very positive assessment of both specific program components and the value of the two programs for improving agricultural production across 12 perceptual dimensions." (Abstract)
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"This article analyses the ways in which socio-political opposition is expressed by looking into the morally loaded discourse of political legitimacy in Burkina Faso that emerged after the assassination of the journalist Norbert Zongo in December. Through the analysis of different political statemen
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ts, newspapers and various comments from the ‘ street’, it locates the struggle against impunity in a social and political undercurrent in Burkinabe society. In this context, notions of the public space are central, because the public space defines both the boundaries of public debate and the behaviour of key political actors. Two recurrent themes in Burkinabe political discourse, namely ideas of truth and courage, and the legitimacy of White people, illustrate the various ways in which socio-political opposition seeks to define the public space within which politics is to be practised and the behaviour to be observed by those acting there. But the struggle against impunity also takes place on a symbolic level at which key symbols are appropriated, interpreted and incorporated into political discourse." (Abstract)
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"Am Beispiel von drei Verbänden, der Anwaltskammer, dem Christenrat und dem Journalistenverband, zeichnet Seyd die jeweilige Entwicklungsgeschichte nach, untersucht neben den verbandsinternen Strukturen die Fähigkeit dieser Akteure, die Hegemonieansprüche der vorangegangenen autoritären Regime z
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u begrenzen und fragt nach deren Einfluss auf den jüngsten demokratischen Systemwechsel von 1993, der zur Gründung der 4. Republik führte. Im Ergebnis zeigt sich, dass es allen drei Verbänden nicht gelungen ist, "die oppositionellen Energien in ihren eigenen Reihen, geschweige denn im gesellschaftlichen Umfeld effektiv zu bündeln. Ihre politische Relevanz erweist sich also nicht an der Demokratisierung autoritärer Regime, sondern daran, daß sie den Legitimationsverfall eines auf dem Exklusionsprinzip basierenden Etatismus indizieren und vor diesem Hintergrund reale Partizipation als Ideal einklagen." (246 f.) Damit bestätigen die Befunde die allgemein festzustellende "relative Bedeutungslosigkeit afrikanischer Zivilgesellschaften im Prozeß der demokratischen Transition und Konsolidierung" (247). Die Arbeit konzentriert sich auf die Untersuchung der drei Verbände im Kontext der zuvor differenziert dargestellten zivilgesellschaftlichen Theorieansätze. Land und Akteure scheinen dabei beliebig gewählt und austauschbar. Ein einführendes Kapitel zur politischen Geschichte und soziokulturellen Entwicklung Ghanas oder eine Einordnung der drei Beispielakteure in den gesamtgesellschaftlichen Zusammenhang hätten der Arbeit einen höheren Erkenntnisgewinn vor allem für speziell an Ghana Interessierte verliehen." (Rezension von Anke Rösener, in: Portal für Politikwissenschaft, https://www.pw-portal.de)
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"Talking Drum Studio - Sierra Leone (TDS-SL) began start-up operations in April 2000. Within a few months TDS-SL created five radio programming strands that are currently airing on eleven stations for a combined airtime of over 10 hours per week. Though each programming strand has a different format
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, all of them have the same goal: to encourage peace and reconciliation. Over the last two years, TDS-SL has been successful in reaching all areas of Sierra Leone. This was evident from the surge in the percentage of listeners, from about 40% in December, 2000, to 85% in March, 2002. Consistent with SFCG’s policy of conducting periodical comprehensive evaluations of its projects, an evaluation mission was conducted in March 2002, in order to assess the effectiveness of TDS-SL in achieving its goals and objectives." (Executive summary, page iv)
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