Media caucus involves Journalist

By Brenda Zulu

Walking into the media caucus yesterday 20 minutes late, i was quickly told towave to the people and quickly to my amazement was nominated to read in plenary at the Tunis Second Pharse of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS).

Media has issues in the information society and I believe that as media we are creators of content and we are also have a responsible for the generating as much content as possible in various languages that we can communicate in effectively.

I was nominated by Tracy Naughton and Luckson Chipare for being a journalist who had been reporting on the WSIS process.

Could you comment on the concrete actions specified for the media in the Plan of Action (play an important role in developing Info Society, combat harmful content, establish partnerships with other media professionals, promote balanced and diverse portrayals of men and women,)

Combat harmful content in the Action plan-sounds like a relative term or expression because what maybe harmful content to me may not really be harmful to the other person maybe there should be an explanation of what harmful content is.

In Zambia a Journalist presenting a live radio programme was threatened by the state for a reading a fax that came through during the show. The radio station even revolked his contract to present on the show. So what is harmful content in this case?

As media we need to establish partnership because this will benefit us especially in training and coverage of Information Communication Technologies related events.

and Promoting balanced portrays of both men and women in the action plan is non negotiable for African media.

Pick up any African newspaper and just look at the pictures, who has been quoted, it has always been men. I think this is all because men are the ones in decision making and media have been training to interview big people in decision making and as a result media in Africa has turned out to be unbalanced in the way they portray women and men in the news.

The recomendation would Gender sensitive training which will help media personnel have gender lenses.

What do you see as the role of the media in creating an inclusive information society? (Who can give a voice to the voiceless, if not the media?)

The media should unlearn what they leant in their journalism training where they were told to only talk to the big people who are believed to make news and also bring in the media ordinary voices of men and women if they have to create an inclusive information society.
This in Africa has become a reality especially with the sprouting of Community Radio. Africa needs an Alternative Media that captures the voiceless including women and the vulnerable groups.

How would you rate the media's performance in disseminating ICT information in your country?

We could do better. We are not yet there but are coming up. The media is slowly realizing the importance of ICT reporting. To this effect we have at national level a Media ICT4D Network for Development (MIND) at national level who are documenting ICT4D projects in rural areas of Zambia and also telling the Zambian story. To add to this we have three women journalists who have in three years in row won awards as Best Female reporters in reporting on ICT4D and have been role models in this new ICT field.

The media are considered by many to be a key stakeholder in developing African information society. Can they do so when so many African countries are characterised by press censorship?

That is why we need the freedom of information bill in Zambia to be passed. With censorship we can never get anywhere and the marginalised voices will never be heard. This where issues of Press freedom come in play.


How do you assess the importance of community media in creating information society?
For media: How does relevant content get created?

Community radio is important because people in the communities decide to talk about issues which they feel affect them. It can be a health, educational or even political issues which they can talk about.

The content that is created is relevant as it is local content and many times it is in languages which they understand and can also communicate.