African editors’ forum launches third chapter on world press freedom day

The breadth of activities on a recent World Press Freedom Day (3 May) 2008 gave birth to a particularly positive development in the fight for press freedom in Africa. The African Editors’ Forum (TAEF) launched its third chapter in Eastern Africa. Sixty editors from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Somalia and Sudan gathered in Nairobi, Kenya to discuss the regional laws and regulations affecting the media in the region as well as the pivotal role they can play in securing press freedom.
TAEF was inaugurated in South Africa in 2003 and continues to grow, Mathatha Tsedu, Chairperson of TAEF, said that this newest incorporation shows “African media practitioners, many of whom work in the coal-face of media repression, have not been cowed into submission.”

TAEF Chairperson Mr. Mathatha Tsedu
The launch was especially opportune as journalists in Eastern Africa work under some of the worst conditions and the independent media is more than often at a low ebb. Specifically, Somalia continues to be the second most deadly country for journalists and scores have fled to find refuge elsewhere.
The meeting’s agenda identified areas in which editors can work to expose corruption and bad governance and to promote the right of access to information. Tsedu said that the fight could begin to be won when it is realized that all African countries have already committed to media freedom through a series of passed protocols. “The problem is that many of these member states pay lip service to the protocols on human rights as well as the right to freedom of expression,” he said.
TAEF recognizes that standing on the bylines will not render full compliance to existing press freedom protocols nor the creation of stronger ones. Thus, under the umbrella of TAEF, editors can work in tandem as intermediary figures between journalists and government authorities to secure press freedom, professional supervisors in the field, and as advocates for open discussion.
Specific to the Nairobi meeting, “TAEF also resolved to create a regional code of ethics which can be a benchmark for journalism conduct in the region,” said Tsedu “The code, once drafted, will be based on the universal ethics that govern journalism, with specific consideration for cultural nuances that apply to the different regions,” he said.
Among the most pressing challenges the new regional body will have to address is, “the repeal of archaic colonial legislation entrenched in the countries within the region that have for decades after independence continued to adversely affect media operations.