African broadcasters’ call for collaboration to report from ‘positive perspective’
Qasim Akinreti
African ministers of Information and Communications have called for collaboration among media organisations on the continent at the 16th African Union of Broadcasting (AUB) conference in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire.
Cote D’Ivoire Minister of Information and Communication Amadou Coulibaly led the conversation, which was also attended by Equatorial Guinea Minister of Information and Communications Manuel D’Ndong, representative of the Botwana Minister of Information and Communication, Permanent Secretary Maithlenyane Batsee, and others.
The Prime Minister of Cote D’Ivoire, His Excellency Robert Bugre Mambe, said the ‘soft power of the media contributed to African unity’, while the ministers agreed areas of collaboration should focus on content-sharing and capacity-building initiatives to report Africa from a positive perspective.
Mambe said, ‘Africa has a lot of positive stories on morality, cultural renaissance, sports and tourism which can be shared with the world’. He said the future of the AUB rested on ‘a framework of cooperation, from continental to intercontinental levels’.
Two new members, China’s National Radio and Television Administration Development Research Center (NRTA) and the Dubai-based Ivory Multimedia production organisation were admitted into the AUB during this year’s conference, which focused on panel discussions and special projects on broadcasting and digital transition to spark innovation and prospects for the African audio-visual sector.
Other areas of focus were the financial resilience of the broadcast media, advocacy and awareness on media and information education and the management and prosperity of digital enterprises.
Discussants were drawn from public and private broadcasters from more than 40 African countries, and delegates included the China Media Group (CMG), UNESCO and development partners from Europe and North America.
The conference is an annual gathering.
- This article was first published here
