Community Media in Africa:

The Role of Journalism in Post-Conflict Situations

A Discussion with Knight International Journalism Award Winners

Friday,November 13, 2009 – 9:30 am to 11:00 am

5th Floor Conference Room of the Woodrow Wilson Center

Ronald Reagan Building. One Woodrow Wilson Plaza,1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, DC

Additional Information and RSVP

The Africa Program of the Woodrow Wilson Center and the International Center for Journalists are pleased to announce the first event in a series entitled “Media in Africa”. The series will constitute a part of publicpolicy outreach effort of the Africa Program at the Wilson Center supported by a grant from the Open Society Institute Foundation. This event is also co-sponsored by Search for Common Ground.

The first event in the”Media in Africa” series, African Media in Post-Conflict Situations:What is the role for Journalism?, will feature Andrew Kromah from Sierra Leone and Chouchou Namegabe Nabintu from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Each one will discuss their role as independent radio journalists intheir communities and the role of independent journalism in conflict and post-conflict countries like the DRC and Sierra Leone.  Both Kromah and Namega behave used radio as a means of community activism and to involve the communityin post-conflict reconstruction.  They will recount their experiences and challenges and how effective their efforts have been in Sierra Leone and the DRC.  David Ottaway, a veteran foreign correspondent in Africa and the Middle East, will respond by trying to draw “lessons learned” from the two presentations for radio journalism andthe media in general in other conflicted national settings.

Andrew Kromah is a private radio stationmanager in Sierra Leone who operates two stations, KISS-FM in Bo, and SKY-FM inFreetown. He has reported on local police corruption, resulting in increasedpay for the police and the establishment of a community affairs department, as well as on voter education, which resulted in higher voter turnout in hislistening area than in other parts of the country. He received the CommonwealthBroadcasting Association Award for exceptional public service in 2004.  He also received the annual Knight InternationalJournalism Award in 2002 for taking bold steps to keepcitizens informed despite great obstacles.

Chouchou Namegabe Nabintu is an independent radiojournalist in the Democratic Republic of Congo, who focuses mainly on women and gender rights and bringing awareness of the impunity that exists for perpetrators of sexual violence in the Congo. In 2003, Namegabe founded the South Kivu Association of Women Journalists (“Association des Femmesdes Médias du Sud Kivu” or “AFEM”) and assumed leadership of theAssociation as its president two years later. With AFEM and through her radiobroadcasts, Namegabe shines a spotlight on women’s issues, especially in ruralareas. She has also brought the plight of Congolese women to an internationalstage, having traveled to The Hague in December 2007, and testifying in frontof the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in July 2009.  On November 12, she will be awarded the 2009 Knight International Journalism Award for her pioneering work exposing violence against women and her success training young women in the Congo tocontinue this important work through AFEM.

David B. Ottaway has worked for The Washington Post as a foreigncorrespondent in the Middle East, Africa and Southern Europe and later as anational security and investigative reporter in Washington before retiring in 2006. He has won numerous awards for his reporting at home and abroad and was twice nominated a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Ottaway is currently a Senior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center. He received a BA from Harvard in 1962 anda PhD from Columbia University in 1972.

This forum will bemoderated by Jerri Eddings, Program Director at the International Center for Journalists, a non-profit, professional organization based in Washington, DC,that promotes quality journalism worldwide. Eddings has extensive experience inthe United States and Africa as a reporter, editor, television producer anddirector of media training programs. Among other positions, she has worked previously as a foreign correspondent for the Baltimore Sun in Southern Africa and as director of the Freedom Forum’s Africa media center in Johannesburg, SouthAfrica.

Every year, the International Center for Journalists (www.icfj.org) honors two international media professionals with Knight International Journalism Awards. Past recipients include pioneering correspondents who have exposed government corruption, warcrimes and other important stories. The award has also honored crusading publishers determined to maintain their independence despite enormous political and financial pressures. Winners are nominated by Knight InternationalJournalism Fellows, past and present, and other seasoned international journalists and experts.