Africa Media Matters

As the dust settles on the 2011 elections in Nigeria, African Media Matters talks to those involved in IWPR’s innovative election reporting programme, set up to boost coverage of the poll and promote balanced, accurate journalism across the country. We hear from the Nigerian Union of Journalists about the challenges facing its members and from IWPR’s Veronica Oakeshott on how these were addressed through training workshops and story production. Also British journalism professor Ivor Gaber and Lanre Arogundade, the director of the Lagos-based International Press Centre, discuss the programme’s election-related news service, Nigerian Election News Report, which assisted participants with their reporting of the ballot and consider the role the initiative can play in the future.

African Media Matter talks to Alex Bell of SW Radio about the Zimbabwean government’s latest efforts to silence independent journalists and asks Henry Maina, the East African director of the freedom of expression group Article 19, whether Rwanda is serious about plans to relax restrictions on press reporting. We find out from Nesrine Malik, a Sudanese-born journalist and commentator, why Sudan’s social media struggled to rally protests against the government and hear from the UN spokesman in Ivory Coast. Hamadoun Toure, about the state broadcaster’s intimidation of peacekeepers. And we discuss the media coverage of violence against women with Sikhonzile Ndlovu of the NGO Gender Links.

Africa Media Matters speaks to the World Bank’s Eric Chinje about the challenges facing African media in the age of the internet, and we profile the work of Mogadishu-based Radio Shabelle, recent winners of the Reporters Sans Frontiere's Press Freedom Award. We also hear from Sudanese Diaspora station, Radio Dabanga, as the country prepared for the independence referendum, as well as Godfrey Odongo of Amnesty International in Uganda on the storm around the outing of homosexuals in the national press, and Chris Swepu of the Pan South African Language Board discusses the significance of South Africa’s first national newspaper to launch a Zulu-language edition.

Africa Media Matters speaks to Wilf Mbanga, exiled editor of The Zimbabwean newspaper as he faces an arrest warrant for a story he claims not to have published, and we profile the work of a group spearheading African investigative journalism. We also hear from Nigeria’s most successful publisher and speak to the producer of the award-winning film, Africa United.

What do the ANC’s recently proposed media regulations mean for journalists in South Africa? We speak to the Press Ombudsman and to the editor of one of the country’s leading newspapers, the Mail & Guardian. We also hear from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on the challenges of reporting on mineral exploitation in the region.

Produced as the Zimbabwe Media Commission was announced, this pilot edition of Africa Media Matters looks at its potential impact on journalists in the country. We also speak to Salim Amin, founder of A24 Media who is helping revolutionise online African news content.