Ministers of Information and Communications from across Africa have called for increased collaboration among media organisations to strengthen regional integration and amplify African voices globally.
The Minister who made the call include; Cote d’Ivoire’s Minister of Communication and meeting host, Monsieur Amadou Coulibaly; Equatorial Guinea’s Minister of Information and Communications, Mr. Manuel D’Ndong; and Botswana’s Minister of Information and Communications, represented by the Permanent Secretary, Madam Maithlenyane Batsee.
Also speaking at the event, the Prime Minister of Cote d’Ivoire, His Excellency Sem Robert Beugré Mambé, emphasised the role of media as a soft power tool for advancing African unity and development.
They made the remarks at the ongoing 16th African Union of Broadcasting conference in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire,
The Ministers said; “the areas of collaborations should focus on content sharing and capacity building initiatives to report Africa from positive perspectives.”
According to the Prime Minister and Ministers of Information and Communications, “Africa has a lot of positive stories on morality, cultural renaissance, sports and tourism which can be shared with the world.”
Beugré Mambé said the future of AUB, rests on ” a framework of cooperation from Continental to intercontinental levels”.
Admission of New Members
During this year’s conference, two new members, China’s National Radio and Television Administration Development Research Center, NRTA and the Dubai based Ivory Multimedia production organisation were admitted into the AUB family.
The theme of the Conference was ‘Developing African Media : What Strategies for a Financial, Technology and Innovative Control Resilence.’
This theme, focuses on panel discussions and special projects on Broadcasting and Digital transition: Challenges, innovation and prospects for African audio- visual. Others are financial Resilience of broadcast media: Anticipate,
Manage and prosper.
There were discussions on Innovation in Content: Create, impact and stand out in a competitive environment.
Discussants were drawn from the public and broadcasters across the Africa.
During the session, special projects from the China Media Group, CMG on use of Artificial intelligence, AI, and AUB -UNESCO advocacy and awareness on media and information education were presented to the conference.
The two days conference would end with excursion to historic al centers in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire capital.
Pubic and private broadcasting stations as well faith based media group, MTA International Africa from over 40 African countries, development partners across Europe and North America attended the annual gathering.
Mercy Chukwudiebere