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ONLY TOGETHER WE WILL SUCCEED
What happened so Far?
1999 – A Year of Media Development
Who are we at the Media Project\What about the front page Artwork?
How to get the newsletter?
ONLY
TOGETHER WE WILL SUCCEED
This is the first newsletter of the UNDP/UNESCO media
development project, which will from now on appear on a monthly basis,
at the beginning of each month. The newsletter is meant to be a brief,
snappy source of updates on progress of our project, reporting on core
activities and sharing with the readers the activities in the pipeline.
If the newsletter
should give rise to interest in special areas, you are very welcome to
contact us for further detailed information. We are always ready to
respond to any inquiries, ideas and comments as we believe in openness,
well aware that only together we will succeed in the challenge to
strengthen a vibrant, professional, independent and pluralistic media in
Mozambique.
‘Media Development in
Mozambique’ is the short title of our UNDP/UNESCO project leaving out
the important beginning: “Strengthening democracy and governance through
development of the media in Mozambique”. After a long and intense
preparatory period the project has finally taken off. The project
conceived in 1995 with an aim to strengthen the development of media
pluralism possible after the adoption of a democratic national media
legislation in 1991.
Support to the emerging
independence of the media of the country is still at the core of the
project philosophy, and will be put to action through a multi-facetted
media development programme, including: a dozen two-week training
courses for journalists; support to the decentralization efforts of the
independent media; collaboration with up to ten emerging community radio
stations; assistance to Radio Mozambique’s aims to reach the whole
country; and finally a study in preparation of a media and journalism
training strategy for the country. Furthermore the project assists
donors, organizations and NGOs to coordinate media development
activities carried out by them, so as to ensure complementarity’s and
maximal effect.
To
arrive at these important aims, we at the UNESCO project will need to
work closely together with the media, with relevant civil movements and
with regional and international organizations. To facilitate this
collaboration we plan to continue the many consultations we have had
with all disturbed stake-holders to ensure that our operationalisation
of the project document will have the maximal effect and will truly
further media pluralism in the country.
What happened so Far?
After the project document was finally signed and the international Chief Technical Adviser identified, the implementation could take off during the second half of 1998.
Preparing the ground
Due to the lengthy preparatory phase, the Project Management Team made up by the CTA and the National Project Coordinator (NPC) started out by reviewing the frame-work provided by the project document initially prepared in 1995. A lot has happened since, also on the media arena, but consultations with representatives of all segments of the media in Mozambique as well as other stakeholders convinced us that the priorities identified were still valid.
Far
from Maputo, the NPC also met several emerging media groups in the
Provinces of Sofala, Manica, Nampula and Cabo Delgado, in a preliminary
three-week assessment mission in April 1998.
We
continue to expand our network of contacts through missions in the
country, through meetings and other activities, where we have an
opportunity to meet the press, and finally we receive many visits in our
project offices, when people are in Maputo.
Journalists
discuss Democracy and Human rights in
Beira and Pemba…
Three training courses in Beira, Maputo and Pemba were the Media
Project’s very first visible activities. The city of Beira was the venue
for the first two-week’s course on “The role of the media in promoting
democracy, governance and human rights”.
The
option for Beira to inaugurate an initial eleven earmarked training
courses aimed to stress the core decentralisation aspect of the project.
Seventeen journalists were selected from Sofala, Manica, Tete and
Zambezia, in Central Mozambique. The course was organised in close
collaboration with the Nordic-SADC Journalism Centre, Maputo.
In
both cities the selected participants made up dynamic and well-motivated
groups. With almost 30% of the participants being women journalists in
both cases, a rare gender balance was arrived at, even though most
newsrooms in Mozambique and elsewhere in Africa are dominated by men.
For
twelve full days the enthusiastic groups openly discussed crucial topics
of the country’s national political agenda such as the democratisation
process, human rights, good governance, the dichotomy
“poverty-democracy”, globalisation, media laws and journalism ethics.
…And Economic and Rural
Development Reporting in
Maputo.
In
Maputo, sixteen journalists from the Southern Provinces of Inhambane,
Gaza and Maputo attended another two-week training course on “Economic,
Financial and Rural Development Reporting”. The course was run from
November 23 to December 4 and the participants came from different media
institutions, including Baia from Inhambane O Amanha, Correio da Manha
and Zero from Maputo and Ouvivendo from Gaza.
This
course inaugurated a package of four, on “Economic and Development
Report-ing”. Unlike the Beira group, the partici-pants to this course
made a rather unbalanced group in terms of gender: only two women
journalists attended it, in spite direct mobilisation in the newsrooms
by the PMT.
Field work included
investigative reporting on emerging, major economic projects in the
Maputo Province. One group targeted the Maputo-With bank road, known as
the Maputo Development Corridor, while other participants investigated
the hard, daily life of a women in the cross border informal market
between Mozambique, Swaziland and South Africa, as well as the
successful experience of the strong women’s co-operative movement in the
so-called “green Maputo zones”
1999 –
A Year of Media Development
Moving into 1999 the Media Development Project will initially ensure to
be working on the basis of a sound understanding of the media landscape,
including media initiatives, technical and human resources available. To
arrive at this understanding a consultant has been charged with the
preparation of a Media Baseline study. This will be finalised during the
month of April.
Democracy begins in the community
…so
the media development project is foreseen to support the establishment
of 10 community radio stations in Mozambique. An inception study of the
first three pre-selected sites is being carried out and is foreseen to
be ready mid March. As soon as the findings have been consolidated the
final selection and establishment of three pilot stations will take off.
The sites are likely to be Homoine in Inhambane, Marrumeo in Sofala and
finally Cuamba in Niassa.
The selection of community radio sites will depend on genuine interest
within the community, potential for sustainability through ‘local
ownership’ and quality expression of interest.
Knowledge and exposure
…
is a
prerequisite for the journalistic transition from a one-party era to one
of independence and democracy. More media do not necessarily contribute
to media pluralism, even though they will contribute to media
proliferation… As such the strengthening of the professionalism of the
Mozambican media is seen as a core activity for ensuring the important
pluralist independence of the media.
Investigative reporting, basic journalistic ethics and balanced
reporting, also in terms of gender representation, forms an integral
part of all training courses. The project already in 1998 carried out
its first two training courses and one this year, and plans
to carry out another nine in 1999. Reporting human rights, Financial and
Economic Reporting, News reporting for Radio, and Establishment &
management of independent media are the topics covered.
Reaching
the whole country
…
is at the core of the development components of this project. The
project is therefore also in 1999 planning to collaborate with the
independent print media on ways of ensuring a better coverage of the
whole country. News rooms in the provinces and a printing press for the
independent media are among the activities planned to reach this goal.
Full
national public radio coverage
… will
be the aim of the project’s assessment of Radio Mozambique’s needs
during the second half of this year. Presently not all parts of
Mozambique is able to receive the signals from the national public
radio, Radio Mozambique. Assistance with upgrading retransmitters or
other equipment needed to meet this objective is also part of the
activities to be initiated during this year.
Women hold up half the sky
… is the poetic Chinese way of expressing women’s important contribution
in society. Also in Mozambique women hold up at least half ‘the sky’ -
often against all odds. And in the media in Mozambique women are
severely underrepresented at both sides of the camera and on both sides
of the microphone.
Only
3% of all journalists in the country are women, and we have already
experienced how difficult it is to ensure at least 30 % of either gender
(i.e. women) in our courses.
The
project will therefore strive to keep a gender awareness at all stages
of project implementation, and works on finding ways to effectively
influence this situation.
Who are we at the Media
Project\What about the front page Artwork?
Birgitte Jallov
Chief Technical Adviser
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Ms. Jallov has worked
professionally with communication policy and planning, training, and
gender issues for more than 15 years. She has prepared and implemented
development communication strategies, awareness raising campaigns,
reviews and evaluations of communication and information pluralism
projects and programmes in Africa, Asia and Europe, where she has also
worked with efforts towards democratisation of the national and private
media in former one-party states. She has analysed and presented Women
in Development issues for Danish NGO’s, as part of her project work in
the ILO and as a film maker and has all along worked with women’s access
to media – particularly community radio. She has an extensive experience
in development of training courses and production of training materials.
Tomas Vieira Mário
National Project
Co-ordinator
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Mr.
Mário is a well know journalist in Mozambique, since he has worked
inside national media since 1977, when he first joined Radio Mozambique.
This nine years assignment was followed by a eight years working
relationship with AIM, the national news agency, first based in Maputo,
later on in Lisbon and finally in Rome during the Mozambique peace
negotiations. After this Mr. Mário worked for three years as
editor-in-chief of the national TV station, TVM, from where he went on
to working for one year as a Media Projects’ Planner for the Nordic-SADC
Journalism Centre before he joined the UNESCO project.
Aline Solange dos Santos
Administrative Assistant |
Based in a theatre and drama education,
Ms.
dos Santos has worked as an actress and model before moving into her
present work area of administration and personnel management. Caisse
Centrale de Development, Swiss Development Cooperation, Cape Verde’s
national co-operative planning secretariat and a Portuguese based import
and export company are among the employers of Ms.dos Santos.
Furthermore the project employs a secretary, a driver and a
cleaner/guard.
What about the
front page artwork?
Bound together in a close-knit composition: freedom of expression,
access to and sharing of information and participation in the
creation of messages in thematised in Mr. Rogerio Raimundo Xerinda’s
design for the UNESCO Media Development Project.
Radio, newspapers, books, a drum and decorative arts together with
the open mouths debating, sharing information, taking part in the
democratic dialogue for development is all encapsulated in the
art-work, which will appear on all publications coming from our
project, be it the newsletter, information briefs, press releases
and reports.
With his roots in the Maputo province of Mozambique, Mr. Xerinda
studied art at the Escola de Artes Visuais in Maputo after which he
joined the artist groups: Nucleo de Arte and Arte Feliz. Since 1989
he at the same time works as graphic artist at the Bureau of
Informacao Publica.
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How
to get the newsletter?
For
now the newsletter is free of charge to organisations and individuals
interested in Media Development in Mozambique. It is possible to get on
the address list by contacting the project. Coordinates are found below.
The
newsletter is seen as our main tool to ensure that proper information on
project activities and plans is available to the public on a regular
basis. The newsletter will in the future be only 2 pages, hoping that it
will be easily read, and stimulate debate and dialogue.
With
two language versions - Portuguese and English – we hope to reach the
immediate target group: the media in Mozambique, donors and
decision-makers as well as the neighbouring countries for maximal
exchange.
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