EDITION 3 4 19 SEPT 2011 COP 17: Durban 10 http ... and beyond AFRICAN MEDIA AND THE GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY CHALLENGE PAN AFRICAN CONFERENCE ON ACCESS TO INFORMATION CAPE TOWN, SOUTH

OPEN SOURCE COVERING BOTH HIGHWAY AFRICA 2011 AND PAN AFRICAN CONFERENCE ON ACCESS TO INFORMATION

http://www.pacaia.orghttp://reportingDNA.org

http://www.highwayafrica.com

HA/PACAIA 2011

EDITION 3 MONDAY

19 SEPT 20114pg 10pg

Lessons from the Arab Spring

COP 17: Durban

and beyond

AFRICAN MEDIA AND THE GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY CHALLENGECAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA 17–20 SEPTEMBER 2011PAN AFRICAN CONFERENCE ON ACCESS TO INFORMATION

mediaaccess

toINFOrmationand

ENVIRONMENTALawareness

(left to right)UNESCO Director-designate of Access to Information Guy Berger, PACAI Awards for Information Activism winner Edetaen Ojo and Deputy Minister of Communication, Obed Bapele.Photo: Fungai Tichawangana

New Media Awards winners and runners up (L-R): Anton Van Zyl, Toyin Abidakun, Nkem Nweke, Nick McNulty, Tichafara Sigauke and Remmy Nweke. Photo: Fungai Tichawangana

By Gabi Falanga

“This is a special evening,” said MC Shona Ferguson,

and indeed it was. The SABC-Telkom-Highway Africa New Media Awards ceremony did not disappoint, as innovators in new media were recognised in a glamorous ceremony.

The décor had an organic elegance. Wooden boxes filled with vegetables and watering cans stood in the centre of the tables, which were covered by silky brown table clothes with meandering leafy patterns. Even the serviette rings were made of seed packets. These edible decorations will be donated to a local orphanage.

The host of the awards, Tel-kom’s Group Executive Brenda Kali, described the winners of the new media awards as ‘crea-tive’ and ‘ingenious.’ The award recipients have “a responsibility to shape consciousnesses with the power of the mouse.”

The New Media awards reward and recognise African innovation in the area of digital media and highlight the role that digital technologies play in journalism and the media at large. The awards are divided into three categories – individual, not-for-profit and corporate.

The individual category awards go to persons who design or appropriate new affordable applications of communication technologies to overcome the limitations of existing infrastruc-ture and capital resources.

The winner in this category was Yommie Omogbeja of Athletics Africa, Nigeria. The trophy was collected by Mrs Oluwaytoyin. The website informs on African athletes and was started by Omogbeja in 2004 as a journal-ism masters project. “The award means a lot to us. It will help us to do more and broaden our horizon and drive our vision for athletics in Africa,” said Oluwaytoyin.

The next category was ‘not-for-profit’. These awards go to media

technology users advancing and assisting communities with lim-ited infrastructure and technologi-cal access.

The winner was Brenda Burrell of Freedom Fone, Zimbabwe. The trophy was collected by Thichafara Sigauke. Freedom Fone is an open source software project which turns ordinary computers into telephone servers, and provides a communication platform for previously marginalised people. Sigauke was pleased by the award and said, “it’s a recognition of the immense effort we’ve put in to bring the marginalised communities closer to critical information.”

The corporate category awards are for businesses that lead creative and appropriate adaptation of technologies on the continent, increasing competitive advantage.

Anton van Zyl of Zoutnet CC, South Africa walked away the winner. Zoutnet developed a web-based application that controls the flow of news copy to the newsroom. This has increased their productivity in the world of content provision, and assisted their correspondents in remote areas to file news copy in a structured manner.

The evening was also made special by the 20 aspiring sec-ond-year journalists from various South African universities who graduated from the Future Jour-nalists Programme (FJP). Zohra Dawood, Executive Director of Open Society for South Africa praised the “young footsoldiers of the journalism world”, saying it takes a special sort of person to enter the profession of journalism knowing the challenges that they will face.

The students received their certificates to applause, and one FJP student even lifted his arms in celebration while on the stage.

FJP Assistant Coordinator Nqo-bile Sibisi is extremely proud of the students. “These certificates are merely a validation for us that the FJP course is significant for

Organic glamour at awards ceremony

Turn to Pg 3>

By Sungeni Chithambo

What role is NEPAD playing in promoting access to information?

The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) is an African Union strate-gic framework for the continent’s socio-econom-ic development in the 21st century. Since 2001, it has been working to draw the continent in from its marginalised position in the outer reaches of the global economy. Africa is seen by many as trailing behind global advances in democracy and development, and the numerous barriers to a transparent relationship between governments and their citizens in many African countries is not helping this perceived reality.

But what is the concrete link between access to information and successful development for the African continent? NEPAD Communications Officer, Dr. Andrew Kanyegirire, shed some light on NEPAD’s role in promoting access to infor-mation.

“A lot of what NEPAD does is reliant on access to information,” he said. In unblocking Africa’s potential, there has to be media freedom and rel-evant, up-to-date information available on a con-tinental, national and regional level.

Yesterday, PACAI held a panel discussion on stakeholder interests and actions. Vitus Azeem, from Transparency International’s chapter in Ghana (the Ghana Integrity Initiative), confirmed that access to information is strongly linked to

a good government, poverty reduction and growth. At the panel discussion, Kanyegirire said NEPAD has realised that the regions where they have achieved the most success over the past few years “are those in which there has been access to information, transparency and good engagements.”

Kanyegirire gave examples of projects in which NEPAD has been successful: the Comprehen-sive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP), the e-Africa programme and the NEPAD Spanish Fund.

When looking at CAADP, the success of this project was due to the joint involvement of farm-ers, the media, the government and civil society. Most importantly, there were information-shar-ing sessions happening throughout the project; Kanyegirire credits this to the accomplishment of NEPAD’s goals.

NEPAD, in pushing towards “a quick-thinking Africa”, realises the importance of media free-dom. With direct access to global partners like the World Bank, International Monetary Fund as well as the African media, NEPAD is in a good position to liaise with these parties on various issues like media freedom.

“A lot of what we push for is through bilateral discussions and lobbying,” said Kanyegirire. In having the power to speak at Pan-African Parlia-ment, NEPAD is a significant force in pressing on towards the goals of access to information and media freedom on the African continent.

2

@NicDawes

Gordhan: I wish in our

underground days we’d had

facebook, twitter, and bbm. It

would made the struggle a lot

easier. #HA2011

@andrewtrenchOke in front of me snoring his head off. Riveting speeches clearly. #highwayafrica

@julieposettiSo you think you’ve been seeing stars @ #HA2011 #apai ? I rode 10 floors in a hotel lift with David Hasselhoff tonight. #I win ;)

@reedkramer

How do 54 countries become 1

market of 600m people? Media has

a vital role reshaping perceptions.

#South Africa Fin Min Gordhan

#HA2011 #apai

@MockChargeThe steps in Auditorium 2 are really awkwardly spaced. Too many of them and too close to one another. #HA2011

@johanBalanceJulian Assange wanted 10,000

euros to speak via skype to Afr

info access conference, says

convener Guy Berger. Assange

was turned down #apai

@Open Source Readers: Tweets from the week! #HA2011 #apai

NEPAD, a force for access to information in Africa?

Andrew Kanyegerire from NEPAD speaks at the “Stakeholder interests and Actions” panel discussion. Photo: Robynne Peatfield

33

By Candace Gawler

‘WikiLeaks’ has been a buzzword of 2011, and the PACAI panel discussion

concerning ‘Exemptions and Secrecy in the WikiLeaks Era’ was bound to be a heated one. However, Internet issues did not feature much in a discussion that turned primarily to state security.

Julian Assange, the editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, was asked to give a video talk. However, he would only do so for a fee of €10 000, according to PACAI Director Guy Berger.

The four-person panel was comprised of only two of the original speakers lined up: Ronnie Kasrils, former SA Minister of Intelligence Services, and Emi Maclean of the Open Society Justice Initiative. Kasrils arguably made the most inter-esting statement concerning WikiLeaks: the documents didn’t contain anything that could pose a threat to state secu-rity, it was simply a matter of individuals being embarrassed.

Emi MacLean, well-versed in the legal issues surrounding WikiLeaks, outlined some of the complexities. She stated that ‘national security’ is often one of the most powerful justifications for secre-cy, including explicit secrecy and non- disclosure.

The challenge is to find the right bal-ance between secrecy and exposure, especially within the growing wave of interest in matters of freedom of infor-mation. Matters of public interest, democratic decisions and violations of human rights should always trump secrecy. Maclean highlighted the need for protection of whistleblowers and lim-ited punishment for members of public.

Kasrils, one of the leading speakers at the Right2know march on Saturday, spoke mainly about security issues. He noted that it is not just WikiLeaks cre-ating a revolution in terms of secrecy. There are various technologies such as cellphones, which he described as “the holy grail of secret services”, allow-ing the state to track anyone. He also pointed out that, a few years ago, taking photographs outside of important state buildings would land people in trouble; now Google Earth shows anyone the front gates.

Exemptions and Secrecy in the WikiLeaks Era

Emi Maclean, legal officer from the Open Society Justice Initiative, speaks

on the complexities of finding a balance between secrecy and exposure in the

Wikileaks era. Photo: Robynne Peatfield

In tomorrow’s edition of Open Source, there will be a double page spread of your photos. Please note that this edition will only be available online on the Highway Africa website at http://www.highwayafrica.com/ and on the PACAI website at http://www.pacaia.org/. You can then rest assured that no trees will be chopped down.

Three bag PACAI’s first ever ‘Oscars’By Mvuzo Ponono

The first-ever awards for Information Activism were handed to the winners last night at the glitzy clos-ing ceremony of Highway Africa #15. Organisers

gave out lifetime achievements to long-serving members of the Pan African Conference on Access to Information (PACAI).

Former Assistant Director General of UNESCO for Free-dom of Expression Alain Modoux was honoured by PACAI for initiating the Windhoek Conference in 1991 which led to the Windhoek Declaration, that was in turn adapted by the United Nations. Modoux returned the gesture of goodwill by presenting PACAI Convener Prof. Guy Berger with the original edition of the Windhoek seminars and the original edition of the Windhoek Declaration for the Rhodes University Library. He also handed over a book written by Pius Njawe, a Cameroonian journalist and key figure at the Windhoek talks.

Liberian activist Malcolm Joseph successfully lobbied for the passing of a Freedom of Information law in Mon-rovia, and the implementation of transparency provisions of other laws. He received his award from Norris Tweah, a deputy minister in Liberia’s Ministry of Information.

The last PACAI award for the night went to Edetaen Ojo, member of the Working Group for the Windhoek Decleration+20 Campaign on Access to Information in Africa. Ojo has spent 15 years working on freedom of expression, media development, human rights and issues around democracy in Nigeria. He was also the driving force behind the signing of Freedom of Informa-tion law by Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan earlier this year, after years of effort. Nigerian Information and Communications Minister Labaran Maku presented Ojo his award .

Said Modoux: “the seeds of a very big tree were plant-ed. We never imagined that what we did 20 years ago would be so prosperous.” He said that the Windhoek Declaration continues to be “a reference for Africa”.

young journalists still in training. The skills they develop are ideal for a 21st century journalist who needs to report on multimedia platforms. We are grateful for the sponsorship from the Open Society Founda-tion and the support from Rhodes University and the role they play in

empowering and enriching the newsroom of the future.”The evening ended on a high note with musical entertainment by

local band Coda, performing on their funky orchestral instruments.

Continued from Pg 1>

Alain Modoux, a former assistant director general of UNESCO, and PACAI organiser Professor Guy Berger exchange gifts at the awards ceremony last night. Photo: Caeri Dunnell

4

COP 17: Durban and beyondBy Enathi Mqokeli

Preparations for the much-antici-pated COP 17 are underway, and Sunday morning’s plenary session

had the topic ‘Responding to the Sustain-ability Challenge: Briefing on COP 17 and innovative strategies and technologies by African business’. Communications and environmental specialist Blessing Manale made an informative presentation in this well-attended session, and kept delegates chuckling with his light-hearted comments. Manale is South Africa’s Deputy Director General of Environmental Affairs.

South Africa will soon host the Con-ference of Parties (COP 17), the United Nations’ annual Climate Change Confer-ence. Manale states that they are going to be meeting over 12 days in Durban to create a plan of action around “facilitat-ing conversation and uniting the world to the climate change issue.” The conference includes formal negotiations open to coun-try delegates, UN-accredited side events through open forums and opportunities for engagement and networking.

Hosting COP 17 demonstrates South Africa’s constructive engagement with the international negotiations, and provides an opportunity to showcase climate change response projects. This is the second big-gest conference to happen in South Africa, after the 2002 World Summit on Sustain-ability Development (WSSD).

Climate Change is a serious threat to sustainable development, yet it also provides an opportunity. Building international competitiveness and new economic infrastructure in response to

environmental sustainability imperatives could create prosperity and jobs, and transform South Africa’s socio-economic environment. Manale believes “we will do something to the future because we are still growing; we are still going to meet our social development and we must still grow our economies.”

South Africa’s response to climate change has two objectives. Firstly, to make a fair contribution to the global effort to reduce greenhouse gas concentration. Secondly, to manage the impact of climate change effectively through interventions that build and sustain South Africa’s social, economic and environmental resilience.

The draft White Paper, still being nego-tiated after delays since July, is sched-uled for release in October. In order for the programme to work, COP17 hopes to increase climate change awareness, facili-tate conversations, and get communities and the broader public involved by uniting for a common goal. “The government is going to spend R1 million on a media par-ticipation fund so that African journalists have got accommodation and transport to make sure that African journalists are in Durban,” Manale said.

The delegates then asked some inter-esting questions. Why is South Africa the centre of focus, so much so that it seems not to be a part of Africa? What is Africa is doing? Manele apologised for this impres-sion, stating that the rest of Africa will also take part in this project. His expectation for COP 17 is “a deal that will set all par-ties to a predictable, time bound resource mechanism to address the impacts in an equitable manner.”

Blessing Manale, from the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, spoke as a substitute for Minister Edna Molewa at yesterday morning's plenary on COP 17 and the media's response to the sustainability challenge. Photo: Desiree Schirlinger

Changing dot com to dot anything By Mvuzo Ponono

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a global internet body launching one of the biggest changes

to the Internet since its creation. From January 12 next year, ICANN will allow users to change website suffixes or generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD - the dotcom part) for a cool $185 000.

ICANN Global Media Operations Director Brad White said that this was a “major change to the Internet’s addressing sys-

tem.” He also told Open Source a web-site devoted to help corporations, cities or other organisations determine wheth-

er they should apply for a gTLD will be publicized on Monday.

Since the announcement in June, ICANN has come under heavy criticism. News agencies have

reported that the new domains will be confusing. “As it stands right now, the vast majority of Web surfers barely understand the structure of a domain… it’s going to be a mess,” wrote PC World.

The Guardian said “the move could also create enormous confusion for consumers and compa-nies. It greatly expands the risks from ‘phishing’ sites because they could use confusing domain names in language scripts that look similar to exist-ing ones to capture peoples’ details.”

ICANN Regional Relations Manager Anne-Rachel Inné hosted a workshop along with White on Sunday entitled ‘ICANN’s role in internet governance’. They

spoke about the work that ICANN does and briefly explained what opening up the gTLDs mean for Africa. Part of ICANN’s upcoming announcement will deal with how the corporation will help developing economies take advantage of the new gTLD process.

Before the presentation at the workshop, Inné answered Open Source’s questions about how ICANN helps with access to information. “Domain names and the IP addresses are things that make the internet work, these are the things we have to get correctly or else you end up somewhere else,” she said. “This is the way that we facilitate access, making sure that computers wherever they are, can access the internet and can access information.”

“If the addressing system on the internet is not internationally coordinated, it means that multiple people can have the same address which leads to confusion. ICANN’s function is to make that addressing system work so that you can go where you want to go.”

White’s take on the functions of ICANN was more metaphorical: “the internet is like a series of roads. If you did not have addresses on the roads you would not know how to get to where you want to go regard-less of how good the roads are. ICANN’s function is to make sure that those addresses work.”

White added that “access is only important if you have some place to go. You can have all the access in the world, but if the addressing system doesn’t work properly when you get on your web browser, it’s not going to do you any good to have access.”

ICANN’sAnne-Rachel Inné, informs delegates about new and old gTLDs and the role that ICANN plays in internet governance. Photo: Robynne Peatfield

5

By Gabi Falanga

In a presentation at the ‘Covering the Climate Change Story’ work-shop on Saturday, Dr Richard Munang argued that a top-down approach to climate change doesn’t work. Only addressing issues

at a national level, instead of actually engaging with communities, is inadequate. Munang then spoke about a rather unique initiative: the UNEP/UNDP Climate Change and Development – Adapting by Reducing Vulnerability (CC DARE) project. It offers flexible approach-es to addressing climate change and empowers people at the same time.

Munang provided examples of projects, such as one in the Sey-chelles, a country experiencing dramatic fluctuations in rainfall pat-terns. Local schools started harvesting their own rainwater, and this had such a big impact on water bills that the government implement-ed rain harvesting as national policy.

During the Q&A session, a workshop participant said that climate change stories are not regarded as ‘sexy’. To overcome this, they need to be pitched and packaged creatively. Another participant gave an example of how this can be done: a group of youngsters in her home country of Botswana had opened a shop that sells items they’d made from recycled materials. The story was pitched and packaged as a business story.

Mario Boccucci, Terrestrial Ecosystems Unit Chief at UNEP, kicked off his presentation with a funny confession. “I am a tree hugger - not only metaphorically but also physically!” he said, to great laughter. Boccucci then explained the UN-REDD programme (UN

Programme for Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries), which assists developing countries in reducing deforestation. It provides support and incentives as a catalyst for firing up green economies.

Forests store an enormous amount of carbon. According to Boc-cucci, they are the most cost-effective place to reduce emissions, an essential move in our planet’s climate crisis. By seeking out more effi-cient ways of logging and identifying alternative development options, “the revenues received from leaving a forest to thrive can be greater than chopping down the trees,” he said.

Boccucci added that the media has a crucial role to play in keeping communities informed and motivated about such environmentally- and economincally-sound programmes.

By Steven Lang

Well-known American scientist and author Jared Diamond has written many books and articles about the impending global

collapse of our environment. The critical message of these books is that we ought to be thinking a lot more seriously about how our actions, and how we go about our daily lives, are jeopardising the future of our planet.

Diamond illustrates his argument with a descrip-tion of the bleak Easter Island environment discov-ered by Dutch sailors in the eighteenth century. When they first arrived at this small Pacific isle, they found a barren, treeless island. Populated by a few thou-sand perpetually hungry islanders, amongst whom there was constant fighting. It was clear, however, that Easter Island had not always been without trees. There was ample evidence, in the form of fish bone piles, that the islanders’ ancestors used to go fish-ing in log outriggers far out at sea. There were no such boats available to cross the waves and greet the European explorers when they arrived.

Modern scientists are convinced that when the first Polynesian settlers arrived on Easter Island, it was covered in a thick tropical forest. In subsequent years, it was gradually cut down and used for boats and other household goods. Diamond asks: what was the man thinking when he cut down the last tree on the island?

It is possibly unfair to blame the person who chopped down the last hope of a forest. We could equally apportion blame to the person who felled the second, third or fiftieth last tree standing. Is the per-son who cut down the first tree any less guilty than the person who cut down the last tree?

The point of this argument is to illustrate that anyone who cuts down trees, or does anything to damage our environment, is to blame for nudging this planet toward irreversible environmental degradation.

What are we thinking?Just like the first Easter Islanders, there are ways

of arresting this process. They could have chopped down a limited number of trees and then planted at least an equal number of saplings. If they had planned their tree felling judiciously they could have had a sustainable forest and a continuous supply of fishing boats.

We need to learn from the misfortune of the Easter Islanders and ensure that we give back to the envi-ronment as much as we take from it. This means we need to think about every time we use a car or any product that has a carbon footprint - how can we compensate for the damage we have inflicted?

If we don’t make this effort and perform the neces-sary sacrifices, we can very well expect our children and their offspring to ask the same question about us: “What were they thinking?”

Tackling climate change at forest level

Wanted: environmental journo for big prize

Are we thinking?

By Candace Gawler

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) will soon launch the second Young Environmental Journalist Award, sponsored by the US government. Journalists aged 21 to 35 from any African country may apply, provided they have report-ed on environmental issues that are relevant to local African communities in 2011.

Entrants should submit either a written article of less than 3000 words for print or online journalists, or no longer than a 6 minute report for television or radio journalists. The winner will be treated to a trip to the USA, where a “green itinerary” will be followed. Opportunities include interacting with leading environmental projects, green economy initiatives, public figures and scientists.

To find out the upcoming launch date and other related information, visit the website on www.unep.org/yeja in the coming weeks. For more information about the award contact Bryan Coll (UNEP, Nairobi) by email at [email protected] or [email protected].

Dr Richard Munang speaking at a Highway Africa workshop. Photo:

Caeri Dunnell

OPINION

3

6

HIV/Aids: an ailing topic

Mwiika Malindima, who partners with the American International Health Alliance speaks at "The Other Sustainability Challenge: Revitalizing Reporting on HIV and AIDS". Photo: Robynne Peatfield

By Candace Gawler and Enathi Mqokeli

Under the title Inspiring HIV and Aids Report-ing in Africa, the workshop session ‘The Other Sustainability Challenge: Revitaliz-

ing Reporting on HIV and Aids’ aimed to how to explore humanise the coverage of this epidemic. The American International Health Alliance, sup-ported by the US government, has been training journalists on reporting HIV/Aids in Zambia and, more recently, Botswana.

The HIV/Aids story is one suffering from “media fatigue”. They advise journalists to focus on crea-tive reporting that avoids both grey statistics and, at the other end of the spectrum, sensational-ism. Mwiikka Malindima, ZAMCOM Media Man-ager specialising on HIV/Aids and Gender, said “we need to encourage positive attitudes and this will come only if our stories are positive.” He proposed using alternative strategies, such approaching the story not as a coverage of Aids, but as a story involving Aids or HIV. Journalists

the HIV/Aids story is one suffering from

“media fatigue”( (

must constantly consider the ethics of reporting on issues related to HIV/Aids, as well as covering stories in indigenous languages.

Breaking down the stigma surrounding Aids was also a central issue. Malindima said that the media has the potential to break down the shame that “is killing more people than the virus”. He wished to emphasise that Aids is like any other disease and that it “has never killed anyone”. He was referring to the fact that the virus weakens the immune system, and it is other diseases aris-ing as a complication of Aids that result in death. He was heavily critical of the number of NGOs involved in Aids relief stating “I bet there are more NGOs than people living with HIV”. He encourag-es journalists to “understand it’s not just health; it is a social economic, political and developmental story.”

Heated discussions followed the presentation, including the topics of sex workers and the poli-tics of power. Suggestions, such as having HIV/Aids stories covered by HIV/Aids positive people, were suggested.

The main theme arising from the workshop was human interest stories as the way forward in reporting HIV/Aids. However, there may be a con-tradiction between attempting to normalise Aids in the media, and perpetuating the idea of “HIV and Aids reporting”. Dr Beth Barnes admitted that this was a topical matter in the stipulations required by the US funding grant.

Chipare, the MISA ManAjibola Amzat

Luckson Chipare, Chairperson of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), cut the distinguished figure of a statesman

as he spoke at the joint opening ceremony of Highway Africa/PACAI in Cape Town.

If statesmanship describes the contribution of a man who is committed to building strong democratic states in Africa through media empowerment, Chipare can’t be anything less. His vision at MISA is to see that people in Africa get access to all information that the media can provide, he told Open Source during an interview after the joint session. MISA’s boss believes that only strong media institutions can deliver vibrant democratic societies where all African citizens can participate actively.

In the last 15 years, Chipare has been developing strategic business plans, projects and programme evaluations for media companies and media support organisations in Africa. The list includes the Southern Africa Media Development Fund (SAMDEF), the Media Foundation for West Africa and the Eastern African Journalist Association.

“Every African youth should be given opportunity to access whatever information they need for self-development. It is important for us to provide access to know what is available for them and what they can do; to see that all young people make career choices much earlier in their life. For me, that is an important thing to campaign for.”

Ironically, that was the opportunity that eluded young Chipare when growing up in Zimbabwe. “As a young man living in a rural

area in Zimbabwe, I had no opportunity to access information about my career path,” he reminicised. However, one thing was clear to him: life was really going to be miserable in Zimbabwe without some education.

He began working for the government in accounts, while studying at the same time. He said it was one of the challenging periods in his life: “I had a full time job, and I had to go to school in the evenings. I studied for my MBA from Mutare; I had to drive to Harare, spend the weekend and drive 260 km back. In my second year [after a promotion] I was commuting from Bulawayo to Harare, which was 450 km.”

He eventually graduated with an MBA from the University of Zimbabwe in 1989; by then he had already become a financial director of the company group where he had worked as an accountant. This was long ago now, but Chipare is still thankful to his wife of many years. “She was the one who provided the support I needed to live through that period.”

Today, the MISA boss is the driver of many media projects across the continent. He joined the institute as a finance manager, and became the organisation’s regional director four years later. Now he helps media organizations to develop strategies and raise funds.

“I feel very fulfilled doing what I am doing. I know I could have been earning a lot of money as an accountant in business, but I don’t think money motivates me anymore. I just love what I am doing now. When I work with people to complement their effort, helping them in coming up with a strategy to run their organization, that makes me fulfilled.” Now, what better defines statesmanship?

Luckson Chipare, chairperson of The Trustfund board of the Media Institutes of Southern Africa Photo: Robynne Peatfield

8

Failure: best thing since sliced breadBy Mvuzo Ponono

Innovation requires education, freedom, ambition and an abundance of technology, according to Naspers CEO Koos Bekker. Africa, unfortunately, is seen to lag behind the world’s

pace-setters. His talk, entitled ‘How do we innovate the media?’ might have been sober news for the continent’s gathered del-egates, but the facts were easy to register and rang true.

Introduced by the session chair Rich Mkhondo, head of MTN’s Corporate Affairs and Development, Bekker started off his talk on a historical note with an overview of early progress that has been made in the media, from the early travels of Columbus to Gutenberg inventing the printing press.

Speaking at the first plenary session after the opening ceremo-ny, Koos Bekker made his argument by explaining why an area in Northern California, known as ‘Silicon Valley’, has become the hub of the world’s most prominent companies. Google, Intel, Apple and Yahoo are among many whose headquarters are in this US region.

Most of these companies were started by ‘geeks’ working from their parents’ garages. Bekker named Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, as examples. The reality is that these inventors were young, male and most are ambitious or driven to succeed by social isolation (Gates was in his 20s when he developed Microsoft).

Speaking after his address, Bekker said his talk was based on his experiences and what he had observed from his extensive travels. A law graduate, Bekker stumbled into the media and business much to his family’s chagrin.

When accepting the 2006 Ernst & Young/Rand Merchant Bank Best Entrepreneur award, he explained that his chosen career path was not seen as more than peddling at home. A couple of years later, Bekker famously went on to set up M-Net, MTN, M-Web and Supersport.

According to Bekker, the US leads in innovation because the country allows inventors a chance to fail. The nature of innova-tions is that most of them do not succeed, and countries devel-oping the latest technologies (like Japan and Brazil) allow ideas the liberty to either bloom or go bust. Failure is a good aggrega-tor.

Bekker points out that most innovations are produced, not by giant leaps, but with small steps and continuous improvements.

He also stated that innovations are not totally new ideas. He brought in Gates once again to illustrate this point, saying that the billionaire personifies the fact that good ideas are copied and embraced. Bekker said Gates does not have a single unique

idea; his success is based on making existing ideas better. Bekker also touched on hindrances to creativity. Money was first

on the list. Good ideas, he said, need a few million dollars most of the time. Strategic planning is also converse to innovation because no one knows what is going to happen and nothing can be planned.

As such, Bekker sees government help as toxic: bureaucratic proc-esses are too orderly to develop new ideas and facilitate progress which is ‘illogical and chaotic’. Bekker further criticised government

tendency to regulate. Governments should interfere only at a later stage, because businesses needed relative autonomy to establish themselves. Once successful, regulation policies can be devised to make sure that human rights are not infringed.

The insightful talk concluded by saying that successful innova-tions maintain market share by growing faster than the competition, attracting talent and balancing teams. And most important? Con-stant reinvention.

Naspers CEO Koos Bekker, African corporate media giant, speaks on media and technological innovation. Photo: Fungai Tichawangana

More DIY for African JournalismBy Mallory Perrett

Highway Africa’s focus on African media and journal-ism forefronts the need for Africans to be the primary producers of African news. In the international media,

Africa is often portrayed as a continent of victims, helpless against the socio-economic struggles surround them. This creates the sense that the ‘developed world’ needs to save us from our plight.

Sim Kyazze, a Ugandan media lecturer at Rhodes Uni-versity and practicing journalist, believes that African development journalism is important. Development jour-nalism, however, battles to contend with mainstream influences and impact on the continent. He believes that a way to combat that is through indigenizing news stories.

“Often stories that investigate causes of poverty or famine, focus on the broad picture, the big snapshot

that’s so popular with CNN anchors,” Kyazze says. “My view is that a better story

would be the face of a single fam-ine victim’s tales and trials can be used.” This would humanize Afri-

ca and contextualize the prob-lems the continent faces.

Development journal-ism which aims to

empower com-munities within Africa, through

telling stories about Africans by Africans, stimulates agency in dealing with their own issues. This works to combat the sense of ennui and helplessness cultivated by much Western media.

At the MTN Opening Gala Dinner, Rich Mkhondo, MTN head of Corporate Affairs, urged journalists to continue their work. He said that “the media is a trendsetter when it comes to debate,” and hoped debates would be sparked throughout the confer-ence in order to develop African media.

Development journalism could centralize the debates around the themes of the Highway Africa conference, both in terms of expanding and enhancing African media, as well as dealing with issues such as global sustainability. According to Kyazze, “climate change is still a fringe topic in mainstream media, mostly because its effects are subtle and also because it lacks the immediate horrors of things like wars.”

However, he believes that you don’t need environmental problems to be seen in mainstream media to realize that prob-lems are occurring all over the world. What needs to be done, Kyazze states, is for “journalists, and the people who pay their bills, to make the case more forcefully - and in a slightly simpler language.”

Sim Kyazze, a journalism lecturer

from Uganda, believes that news articles focusing on

individual case studies are better able to convey

development messages. Photo: Steven Lang

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MTN. The heartbeat of Africa.

For Africa. From Africa.

More people in Africa choose MTN than any other network. Because for 17 years MTN has invested in Africa, partnered with Africa and believed in Africa.

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Powerful plug-‘n-play mobi-sites for publishersBy Michael Salzwedel (Grocott’s Mail, Grahamstown)

If you’re a news publisher and you don’t have a mobile platform, you could be missing out.You may have a large potential mobile audi-

ence that’s waiting to be reached, and you’re also missing out on additional revenue streams.

But going mobile isn’t just about making your news content available in a mobile-friendly for-mat. Publishers should go mobile, but not just with news: they need to bring together a variety of compelling content if they want to stand out.

But what is compelling content? The core thinking behind Grahamstown NOW, the mobi-site for Grocott’s Mail, South Africa’s oldest independent newspaper, is that ‘nowness’ is more compelling than newness. Information that’s of use is more compelling than infor-mation that’s just of interest. That’s what gets users coming back for more.

So, content on Grahamstown NOW is always changing. It’s designed to give users a snap-shot of what’s on-the-go, and what’s coming

up, in this small Eastern Cape town.Visiting the site, you might see that the munici-

pality is holding a public meeting in the town hall at 10h00 tomorrow, or that there’s a 2-for-1 pizza special at your favourite restaurant start-ing in two hours’ time, or that there’s a jumble sale happening right now at the church down the road from you.

You can also read the latest tweets about Gra-hamstown or SMSs sent to Grocott’s Mail, or find/offer a lift somewhere, or find out what’s on at the local cinema tonight. And, of course, you can also read the latest news from Grocott’s Online.

What if you, as a publisher, could offer all these types of content to existing and new audi-ences in your city/area? Well, you can. A mobi-site just like Grahamstown NOW is designed to work on even the most basic of internet-ena-bled cellphones.

As delegates heard at yesterday’s panel ses-sion on mobile and convergence, we’re making the framework of Grahamstown NOW – known as NikaNOW – available to publishers to get up

and running with their own mobi-site. You don’t need a development team or a web server or months of hard work – just someone to handle the content side of things and someone to con-vince local businesses to advertise their spe-cials on the site.

Your instance of NikaNOW is hosted on the NikaNOW servers (it’s just like starting a blog), and includes an easy-to-use web-based administrative area, which enables you to con-figure your site and manage its content any-time, anywhere.

You’ll soon be able to setup and configure your own NikaNOW mobi-site with just a few clicks, directly on NikaNOW.com. For a limited time, manual setup and support is being spon-sored for applicants who meet certain criteria, made possible by the World Association of Newspapers. Interested? Go to www.nikanow.com and let us know.

NikaNOW is part of a broader project called Iindaba Ziyafika (the news is coming) running at Grocott’s Mail since 2009, funded by the Knight Foundation.

Revolutions and social media; lessons from the Arab Spring

By Candace Gawler

“Social media plays the major role in organ-ising a revolution,” said Said Essoulami, speaking to Open Source after the open-

ing PACAI session on Sunday morning. Essoulami is Executive Director of the Centre for Media Freedom in the Middle East and North Africa.

The panel discussion entitled “Advocacy, Elections, Revolutions” dealt with issues surrounding the mobi-lisation of access to information in Africa. Speakers included Diana Senghor from West Africa’s Panos Institute, Tony Mendel from the Centre for Law and Democracy and Henry Maina, Article 19’s East Africa director.

Essoulami said “young people were perceived as lurking on the internet with no sense of public duty and participation in the affairs of state” in the years before the revolution. However, it turned out that they were well-organised and well-informed through these media platforms, enough to change the whole sys-tem. He pointed out that although the Egyptian gov-ernment shut down a large number of the country’s internet providers during the uprising (thereby deny-ing access to information), the help of large com-munication corporations such as Google worked to transcend the boundaries restricting this access to social media. Despite the Tunisian government’s attempt to control online activists and bloggers (some have been arrested), they certainly haven’t managed to keep them quiet.

The youth “defeated the fear of being repressed” and this empowered people to come onto the streets. According to Essoulami, social media platforms and tools such as Facebook, YouTube and twitter are “reducing the distance between virtual and real.” Said Essoulami from the Centre for Media Freedom in the Middle East and North Africa speaks about the major role of social media in the Arab Spring

Revolutions. Photo: Robynne Peatfield

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Q&A with tech-savvy AtaganaBy Mallory Perrett and Wilhelmina Maboja

Open Source managed to pull Michelle Atagana, Nigerian-born New Media fanatic, off Twitter for a few quick questions on her craft. Atagana is the managing editor of Memeburn.com, an

online monitor of technological innovations, news and social media. Q: How do you think we can balance our increasing demand for new

devices against its impact on the environment?A: It’s a double-edged sword: you say to people ‘stop using paper’

and move online but even this technology is also somehow deplet-ing the planet. You say to people ‘recycle’ and they [do] but at some point as well, that process of recycling is also doing something bad. We need to start re-thinking how we deal with environmental issues. The planet may have been here for billions of years but it’s not meant to last forever.

Q: Do you think innovation is just for the young or can the elderly get in on it too?

A: Yesterday I saw a guy tweet from his iPhone, he looked about 60-70. I used to think “aw, he knows how to use technology,” but now I think “he’s got a prettier phone than me.” Technology is for everyone. Anyone who wants to use it, they should use it. 20 years ago people would say “if it leads it leads”, now they say “if it trends, it leads”.

Q: The ICT industry can be said to be a white, male dominated arena. How does it feel coming in as a black woman?

A: I think it’s exciting. I mean look at Ory Okolloh, for instance. She’s a powerful black woman and a head of Google. So it’s an area ripe for the taking. So if we don’t go for it, it’s no one’s fault that we’re not there.

Q: What advice can you give other young Africans interested in New Media, in terms of bridging the gap between digital technology and environmental sustainability?

Use what you can to get heard. Use the technology to make a differ-ence. I’ll tweet about the Niger Delta because that’s a big deal for me [and so on]. So you have to be smart, you’ve got to use the technology to achieve your goals and go for it.

Q: Technological trends generally stem from the West, sometimes from the East. Do you think African journalists have something unique to contribute?

A: I always say that if Africans don’t start telling their own stories, it will be printed by the West they way they want it to be. And they will have to let it be the way it is told by the West. And Africa is rising and telling its own stories. It’s working hard, it’s trying. There are innovators in Africa, it’s not well known but there are. There are tons of interesting things coming out of Africa … let’s just wait and see.

Open Source is published daily by Highway Africa and the Pan African Conference on Access to Information at the 2011 Conference in Cape Town, South Africa (17-20 September 2011). Please feel free to reproduce material from this publication citing ‘OPEN SOURCE’ as the source. EDITORIAL TEAM: Editor: Steven Lang/ Assistant Editor: Sim Kyazze/ Photo Editor: Fungai Tichawangana/ Sub-editor: Romi Reinecke/ Production Editor: Raisa Meiswinkel/ Design and layout: Frank Hermus, Thirusha Raja, Nikita Singh/ Photographers: Des Schirlinger, Robyn Peatfield, Caeri Dunnell/

Writers: Ajibola Amzat, Candace Gawler, Enathi Mqokeli, Gabriela Falanga, Mallory Perret, Mvuzo Ponono, Sungeni Chithambo, Wilhelmina Maboja, Buhle Nkonki/ Printed by Minuteman Press, Cape Town. Highway Africa Director: Chris Kabwato. Contact Highway Africa: [email protected], OR www.highwayafrica.com This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/za/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 543 Howard Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

Highway Africa and Pacai wish to thank the following sponsors, partners and working group members:

Michelle Atagana takes questions at yesterday morning’s plenary on Digital Technology and Innovation. Photo: Desiree Schirlinger

Digital Citizen Indaba clicks off todayBy Enathi Mqokeli

The Digital Citizen Indaba (DCI) kickstarts today under the theme of “Freedom of Access to Online Informa-tion & Digital citizens”. The workshops aim to focus

on freedom of online information, looking at social and mobile media used in revolutions, protests and activism.

“I have very high expectations,” says Elvira van Noort, one of DCI’s Coordinator. “The speakers are excellent. We will have a lot of practical sessions,” she says. “The del-egates will walk away with a lot of skills that they will be able to implement in their own communities and countries to empower people.”

The DCI is set to discuss topics ranging from activism, digital media, civil society, social justice and technology for social change. All this is aimed at equipping delegates attending these events with skills related to digital media.

DCI Coordinator Professor Jane Duncan states “the main aim of DCI is to let ordinary citizens who are using digital media, raise issues across Africa through the inter-net in their respective countries. This year we are not only inviting the people who usually attend the event but we are including activists from Southern African countries.”

The DCI Administrator and Press Officer Neliswa Ntanda also expressed her expectations: “I am very positive about it, we have engaging panel discussions that will be able to allow interaction from the delegates.” The panel debates and practical workshops will be an opportunity to foster new ideas and ways of interacting within social media to get stories published that wouldn’t usually get into main-stream media.

“We have got practical hands-on sessions,” remarks Duncan. “I hope people come out with a deeper under-standing of how activists, or whether activists, are using social networks in order to struggle for social justice in their respective countries. The DCI is to make sure people have the skills in order to make proper use of social net-works,” she added.

www.digitalcitizenindaba.com