{UAH} NEWS EDITORS RESOLVE TO TELL AFRICAN STORIES FROM LOCAL PERSPECTIVE.

I wonder where they have been getting their African stories from all along.

Hussein Lumumba Amin
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Editors resolve to tell African stories from local perspective.

Daily Monitor's managing editor Charles Odoobo Bichachi (right) and other African editors listen during a discussion at an African editors meeting organised by State of the Union and Africa Media Initiative recently. Courtesy photo

By Monitor reporter

Posted  Sunday, June 19 2016 at 01:00

KAMPALA- Editors from at least 20 African countries sitting in the Ghanaian capital Accra last week resolved to rally the rest of the continent's media to be more deliberate in telling the African story and the place of the African Union in shaping the future of the continent.

The June 11 to June 12 meeting organised by State of the Union (SOTU) and Africa Media Initiative (AMI) – both civil society organisations – in conjunction with the African Union (AU), was one of the first steps towards a renewed drive to mobilise the continent's media to share information and to tell the continent's stories from the African perspective.

It brought together editors from leading media houses in Algeria, Nigeria, Cameroon, Kenya, Rwanda, Liberia, South Africa, Senegal, Mauritius, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, DR Congo, Ethiopia, to name but a few .

Opening the meeting, AMI executive director Eric Chinje noted that a study on how Africa media covered the last AU meeting revealed that of the eight main themes discussed at the 2015 general assembly in Addis Ababa, two stories were mentioned in most of the continent's media, namely the election of president Robert Mugabe as chair, and his near fall with hardly any mentions about the Boko Haram and al-Shabaab menace, as well as the main theme of empowering the African woman.

Participants noted that African media relied on international agencies whose story angling was often at variance with the African perspective.

SOTU coordinator Osai Ojigho said many African countries had signed to 14 instruments and 10 treaties of the AU but were slow in ratifying and domesticating them, adding that information on the status of ratification would help push more governments to commit to initiatives geared towards improving governance and livelihood on the continent.

monitor.co.ug/News/National/Editors-resolve-to-tell-African-stories-from-local-perspective/-/688334/3256126/-/ss3xkaz/-/index.html

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