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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

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

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.

 

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.