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International Freedom of Expression eXchange Clearing House
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Date: 2 October 1996

AFRICA: Malawi to host MISA's "Community Voices" conference

ORIGINATOR: Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), Windhoek

More than 130 media workers from throughout Africa and beyond
will arrive in Malawi this weekend for the start of a week-long
conference which will thrash out ways in which community and
independent broadcasters, film-makers and publishers can work
together more effectively.

Organised by the Windhoek-based Media Institute of Southern
Africa (MISA), the "Community Voices" conference will address
issues of sustainability of independent media, networking between
media organisations, and the reform of broadcasting legislation
in southern and eastern Africa. MISA -- a non-governmental
organisation promoting media freedom and diversity -- will also
hold its annual general meeting during the conference, which is
to be staged at Club Makokola, just outside Mangochi on the shore
of Lake Malawi.

Delegates will include independent film and video makers,
community broadcasters, journalists from both the print and
electronic media, representatives of some of the region's public
broadcasters as well as members of South Africa's Independent
Broadcasting Authority.

"It is heartening to see [the] southern African public sector
broadcasting authority taking a keen interest in community and
grassroots initiatives like this one," says MISA Director
Methaetsile Leepile. "The conference should come out with
strategies for co-ordinating the efforts of the various players
in community broadcasting in east and southern Africa."

The "Community Voices" conference comes in the wake of MISA's
commitment to represent all forms of independent media.

Topics for discussion during the five-day conference include:
community media funding; the role of community media in promoting
democracy and development; capacity building; training needs; and
strategies for promoting the reform of broadcast legislation.

The conference will close with the presentation of MISA's annual
media freedom award, which goes to an organisation or individual
in recognition of their contribution toward promoting media
freedom in the Southern African Development Community (SADC)
region. Keynote speaker at the award ceremony, to be staged
during a gala dinner on 11 October 1996, will be Dr. Brazao
Mazula, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Mozambique. The
"Times of Swaziland" newspaper, the Zimbabwean feature film
"Flame", and veteran South African journalist Allister Sparks
have been nominated for this year's MISA award.

During the same ceremony, another award -- presented for the
first time by Southern Africa Communication for Development
(SACOD), an umbrella body of independent film and video-makers --
will go to the producers of a video or film which has contributed
towards the promotion of democracy and development in the SADC
region.

Chairperson of MISA's Chapter in Malawi, Bentry Mndhluli, says
Malawi is privileged to host the largest MISA conference yet. "It
will be a great opportunity for Malawian journalists to learn
from their colleagues elsewhere in the continent. It will also be
a chance for us to show them why Malawi is known as the Warm
Heart of Africa."

Mundhluli further urged Malawian media workers to take a keen
interest in the conference with a view to seeing how they too can
work towards promoting media freedom and plurality in all sectors
of the media. Delegates to the "Community Voices" conference,
which is being sponsored by IBIS, the Open Society Institute,
SIDA, and the Communication Association Foundation, will come
from all SADC countries, as well as from Ethiopia, Uganda, Sudan,
Kenya, Ghana, Senegal, Europe and North America.

For further information, contact David Lush at MISA, Private Bag
13386, Windhoek, Namibia, tel:+264 61 232975 or +265 584244,
fax:+264 61 248016 or +265 584417, e-mail:
dlush@ingrid.misa.org.na, research@ingrid.misa.org.na.

The information contained in this press release is the sole
responsibility of its originator.
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___________________________________________________
Bruce Girard
Pulsar - AMARC
Email: bgirard@pulsar.org.ec
http://www.web.net/amarc/pulsar.html
Tel: +593-2-525521    Fax: +593-2-542818
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