[eccr] Community Media, Media of the Future

>Community Media, Media of the Future
>13-05-2004 (UNESCO Kingston) - The genre of "community media" was hailed 
>as the "new media" of the future at the Commonwealth-Caribbean Media 
>Conference, a three-day activity held last week on the University of the 
>West Indies St Augustine Campus, Trinidad and Tobago to mark World Press 
>Freedom Day 2004.
><http://portal.unesco.org/ci/ev.php?URL_ID=15734&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201>
>
>Full Text
>
>Impassioned pleas from some panelists and members of the audience called 
>on media owners to play their part in resisting the muting of Caribbean 
>voices and cited community media, especially radio, as 'the one to watch' 
>in ensuring pluralism, diversity, local content and democracy in the Caribbean.
>
>Organized by the Commonwealth Journalists' Association (CJA) and the 
>Conference of Caribbean Media (CCM), an umbrella body for a number of 
>participating media organisations in the region, with support from UNESCO, 
>the Commonwealth-Caribbean Media Conference provided the forum for some 
>fifty journalists and media professionals to share their experiences of 
>working in the Caribbean and other regions of the British Commonwealth.
>
>The Conference was opened by Prime Minister Patrick Manning of Trinidad 
>and Tobago who called for a Code of Ethics for the media, a comment that 
>stirred considerable debate in the days following the opening.
>
>Of major interest to participants was the warning by Zimbabwean editor 
>Nqobile Nyathi of the Zimbabwe Daily News, embattled in a fight for a free 
>press in her country, not to let the government control the media,  voiced 
>during an address to Conference participants entitled "Journalism under 
>the Gun".   She cautioned Trinidadian citizens and journalists to 
>"appreciate what they have...because, once it's gone,  (press 
>freedom)...it is difficult to get it back."
>
>The delegates also heard reports on the state of the media in the 
>Caribbean and various regions of the Commonwealth and explored within 
>panels questions such as reporting under siege, and experiences in 
>withstanding these pressures, convergence, the new technologies and 
>present day journalism, local content development and legislation, ethics 
>and standards and other aspects of editorial policy, and HIVAIDS a major 
>issue of concern to the Caribbean media and in other parts of the Caribbean.
>
>The overriding issue of the conference was the quality of reporting and 
>writing in all fields of the media and the need to take an in-depth look 
>in the entire question of journalism training in the region in view of 
>plans of the University of the West Indies, St Augustine and the 
>Commonwealth Journalists' Association to introduce a long term programme 
>of training in this field at the University.
>
>In the discussion on local content quotas, media owners were cautioned 
>take careful note of the challenges posed by the GATT and ongoing WTO and 
>FTAA negotiations. The region's lack of an audio-visual policy to 
>"preserve and enhance Caribbean diversity, audio-visual heritage and 
>intercultural dialogue and understanding" was also cited as an immediate 
>challenge to be addressed by Governments, media, policy makers and wider 
>civil society.
>
>The Commonwealth-Caribbean Media Conference was situated within the 
>framework of a weeklong programme of activities (3-7 May) to celebrate 
>World Press Freedom Day including the launch of the new CJA headquarters 
>in Trinidad and Tobago, a media exhibition demonstrating the work of the 
>media in Trinidad and Tobago and other Commonwealth countries, and the 
>opportunity for young people thinking of a career in journalism to talk to 
>working journalists from the Caribbean and other regions.
>
>Link(s)
>Commonwealth Journalists' Association (CJA)
>http://www.cjaweb.org/
>Contact
>Jocelyn Josiah, UNESCO Kingston Office
><mailto:(j.josiah /at/ unesco.org)>
>Source
>UNESCO Kingston

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