Conference on Africa's Public Broadcasting Adopts Rabat Declaration
Regional, Politics, 6/1/2000

An international conference on challenges to public broadcasting in Africa, held in Rabat May 28-31, wound up with the adoption of "Rabat declaration."

Participants called media professionals, the civil society, governments and legislative bodies in the African continent to endeavor for incepting a new vision of public media service. Such vision, they said, must be developed and implemented in Africa to face challenges posed by globalization of strategies, standardization of contents and rapid development of technologies.

Considering the decisive role of audio-visual in achieving development, democracy and good governance, the declaration urged the United nations to promote and help the development of independence and pluralism concepts in African audio-visual media as it was recommended in Windhoek declaration adopted on May 3, 1991.

For participants, neither commercial nor state-owned, public broadcasting achieves public service. Public broadcasting independence, dynamism and quality must be guaranteed by appropriate financing mechanisms and a well-defined legal and institutional frameworks. Editorial responsibility must be discharged according to journalistic standards and practices respectful of democratic values and of citizens' right to information.

The globalization and standardization strategies adopted both by States and private operators require from societies, governments and professionals in the continent to seriously ponder on their specific contexts, identities and their culture diversity, participants underlined.

The conference, which brought together African media representatives and international experts, also looked into the role of public service organizations and attempted to determine the nature, criteria and conditions for effective operations and discussed the importance of pluralism, the role of the private sector in relation to public interest and the need for appropriate regulatory systems.

The conference was organized by Moroccan ministry of communication in cooperation with Paris-based world radio and television council.

Previous Stories:
  Conference on public broadcasting in Africa   (5/29/2000)
  Radio-broadcasting in Africa conference in May in Rabat   (2/2/2000)

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