African media and the Digital Divide

The 250 delegates at the 6th Highway Africa conference, held at the National Media Institute of SA, have adopted the stance spelled out in a document titled "A Charter on African media and the Digital Divide". The document is to receive the attention of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) and the UN Summit on the Information Society in Geneva next year and calls for an African information society concentrating on removing the obstacles to continental development and putting African issues on the global agenda.

The SABC and Rhodes University's journalism school were joint organisers of the conference. Says Prof Guy Berger, head of the Rhodes' Journalism and Media Studies department, "With the Charter, conference participants have said they want the WSSD to recognise the critical importance of press freedom and new media technologies like the Internet.

"The Charter recommends increased dissemination of African content in a wide
range of African languages, as well as training opportunities for African
journalists to learn new media skills."

The Charter calls on African governments to promote respect for freedom of expression, diversity and the free flow of information and ideas. It would like to see affordable access to telephones, email, Internet and other telecommunications systems get more attention from these governments and asks the media to promote public debate on the development of national information and communications policies and infrastructure. The debate should also look at the use of free open-source software versus proprietary products.

You can get the full text of the Charter online at www.highwayafrica.org.za.