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Here is a synopsis of a 26 minute video that has been commissioned by the
Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) for World Press Freedom Day  May
3, 1998.

MISA is organising showings for civil society representatives and decision
makers in most southern African countries, coordinated by our national MISA
offices. We are also asking national broadcasters to show the video as part
of their recognition of world press freedom day.

If anyone would like to organise a showing the video, in southern Africa or
elsewhere, as a sign of solidarity with the region on this important day
(World Press Freedom Day was declared by the United nations in
commemeration of the Windhoek Declaration on promoting an independent and
pluralistic African press), please contact myself or Bright Mwape, Regional
Information Co-ordinator, Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA),
Private Bag 13386
Windhoek, Namibia, Tel. +264 61 232975, Fax. 248016, e-mail:
bright@ingrid.misa.org.na

Broadcasting and other campaign materials will also be available.

Synopsis

The idea:
A young journalist is given an assignment by her newspaper editor:
"Write an article on World Press Freedom day by 3. May."

Short drama sequences set the framework of the film, and introduce the
documentary elements which have been commissioned from film crews and
reporters from around the MISA region of 11 southern African countries.

The film producers have set the action in the offices of a local newspaper,
where the reporter is an actress, but the stories she finds are all too
real. The internet becomes a window into a world which she discovers.
Information is there - the Windhoek Declaration of 1991, which calls for a
free, independent and pluralistic press. Interviews can be called up with
journalists in the print and broadcast media throughout southern Africa.
These become full screen television pictures. The audience is brought into
contact with people and stories around the region, and learns that the
press is a vital, but fragile element in a democratic society.

Reports include the murder of Ricardo de Mello, assassinated in Angola in
1995. Press harrassment and censorship become issues in the film, which
describes the banning of the Post newspaper in Zambia and the imprisonment
of its editor, who makes a spirited defence of his journalism.

But it is not only the press which faces restrictions. Blatant government
censorship of the television news in Swaziland opens the debate about who
owns and controls the media in southern Africa. Are private ownership and
pluralism the same thing? Not if powerful individuals own whole groups of
newspapers, and radio and television stations, too.

The media is under threat. According to some, it is irresponsible,
unpatriotic, and sensationalist. It must be controlled. Some see media
councils and licensing as necessary reforms, others say they are attempts
to gag journalists. The film reflects the debate.

This is not the reporter's only assignment. One day she is personally
confronted with a story based on a source who wishes to remain anonymous.
For her, press freedom assumes a personal significance.

The film is a voyage of discovery, whereby the journalist - and the
audience - learn why press freedom is important to everybody.


Director: Steve Felton
Production company: Mubasen

John Barker, Regional Programme
Coordinator (Broadcasting)
Media Institute of Southern Africa
Private Bag 13386,
21 Johann Albrecht Street
Windhoek, NAMIBIA
Tel: +264 61 232975 Fax +264 61 248016
E-mail johnb@ingrid.misa.org.na

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