The media is an important stakeholder in public education and information dissemination and the government should thus put in place laws and regulations that protect its freedom, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) minister, Peya Mushelenga, has said.
Mushelenga said this in his opening remarks at the Africa ICT Ministers Forum in Windhoek on Thursday.
He said that as much government needs the media for information dissemination, similarly on its part, the media fraternity should also perform their tasks with a sense of responsibility and objectivity.
“Premised upon the foregoing, I humbly call upon the Africa ICT ministers present either physically or virtually to lobby for policy change and serious investment in the ICT industry in their respective countries. To achieve this goal, as Africa ICT ministers, we need to innovate and invest more in education and training of our people in new technology, so as to empower the African youth with soft skills and technology,” said Mushelenga.
He added that in order to create a pool of human capital willing to establish robust digital economies and competitive markets across Africa, states should establish an enabling ecosystem that is designed to encourage and promote technological entrepreneurship and innovation across Africa that can tackle the abject poverty and other challenges on the continent.
Speaking at the same occasion, Unesco’s Assistant Director General for Communication and Information, Tawfik Jelassi, said this year’s World Press Freedom Conference marked the 30th anniversary of the historic 1991 Windhoek Declaration, which triggered the proclamation of 03 May as World Press Freedom Day. This is turn paved the way for the promotion of media reforms and the development of free, independent and pluralistic media.
“On 03 May, participants to this year’s conference adopted the Windhoek+30 Declaration, which takes forward the spirit of the original 1991 Windhoek Declaration, but refers to nowadays persistent and new challenges to media freedom. These include the risk of media extinction amid a severe economic crisis and disruption of traditional media business models, increasing levels of disinformation, hate speech and persistent threats to the safety of journalists,” said Jelassi.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
