🚀 go-pugleaf

SOUTHERN AFRICA: MISANET E-MAIL NEWS EXCHANGE

Southern African media organisations have begun exchanging news
via e-mail. Set up by the Media Institute of Southern Africa
(MISA), a non-governmental organisation promoting media freedom
and diversity, the MISANET will link independent newspapers,
broadcasters and training institutions in Southern Africa by
e-mail. This is a bid to overcome poor, slow and costly
communication links which currently hamper the free flow of
information in the region (Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Angola,
Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Lesotho, Swaziland, and
South Africa).

The South African newspapers "Weekly Mail" and "Guardian", "The
Namibian" daily newspaper, and MISA Headquarters now have
Internet access, and are exchanging news stories and information
on media freedom issues. It is envisaged that at least another
five member organisations will be on line by the end of the year.
Managed by MISA headquarters in the Namibian capital Windhoek,
the news exchange - which is to include human rights information
and economics news - is currently operating on a
store-and-forward list server system.

Until now, southern African journalists, and thus their
audiences, have been cut off from each other because phone lines
in the region are bad, the cost of faxing is prohibitively high,
and the mail is slow and notoriously unreliable. For further
information about the MISANET, contact MISA Information
Coordinator David Lush at - e-mail: dlush@misa.alt.na; Tel: +264
61 232975; Fax: +264 61 248016, Private Bag 13386, Windhoek,
Namibia.

** ** **

The above is from the IFEX Communique.

The IFEX Communique is published weekly by the IFEX Clearing
House, Toronto. The facility is operated by the Canadian
Committee to Protect Journalists in partnership with the member
organizations of the International Freedom of Expression eXchange
(IFEX). Material may be submitted to the Communique at E-mail:
ifex@web.apc.org; Fax: (1-416) 867-1034; or Tel: (1-416)
867-1638. Editors this week: Kristina Stockwood and Nick
Fillmore. Subscriptions are available by e-mail and surface mail.