FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 01September 2014, Windhoek; Namibia. The Southern African Broadcasting Association (SABA) has re-elected NBC Director General, Albertus Aochamub for the 3rd consecutive 2 year-term as its President during its 22nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) on the 29th of August 2014 at Ezulwini, Swaziland. Aochamub is also the Vice President of the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association (CBA) for the next 2 years since election in May 2014 in Glasgow, Scotland. He is the only leader of a Southern African broadcast house to have received the honour of having been elected for 3 consecutive terms as the head of the regional body of broadcaster in its 22 year history. Aochamub thanked the outgoing board and expressed his wish to see further improvements in how the regional body functions to serve its membership better. The theme of the summit that preceded the AGM from the 27 to 28th of August 2014 was Promoting African Heritage through Content for Digital Media. “Content is King. Africans should not look at their television screens ten years from now and see aliens but themselves being portrayed better. They need to take the responsibility to set the agenda on how they want to be perceived by themselves and the world,” said the SABA President on the conference theme. This is aimed at showcasing African stories first hand and not allow third parties to tell the African Stories through their tainted lenses. Key resolutions taken included: 1. Appointment of NBC Chief Reporter at its southern Namibian centre of Keetmanshoop, Ellen Nanuses as the first ever Secretary General for a 2 year term. 2. Appointment of a fully gender balanced board of Directors, also a first for the regional body 3. Re-establishment of its Gender sub-committee to drive Gender mainstreaming 4. As the world counts down to 2015, the deadline for the Millennium Development Goals, and the 28 targets of the SADC Gender Protocol, SABA further commits to: • Play an active role in the UNESCO-led Global Alliance on media and Gender (GAMAG), where SABA is the nominee for Vice- Chair of the International Steering Committee. • Support the Centres of Excellence for Gender in the Media coordinated by Gender Links. Currently seven of the fifteen public broadcasters in SADC have elected to join this process that involves adopting and implementing a gender policy and capacity building for media practitioners, as well as monitoring improvement and sharing good practices. SABA encourages all its members to become COEs. • Agree on Gender Sensitive Indicators for all broadcasters in the 15 member states of SADC. • Support gender in media training. • Sponsor annual awards on Gender and the Media, recognizing gender aware reporting, programming, and work place practice. 5. Inclusion of the bodies of SADC regional regulators as observers on its board to drive closer dialogue on matters of common interest. The summit was officially opened by Swaziland’s Minister for Information, Communication and Technology, Hon. Christopher Ndlangamandla on behalf of Prime Minister, Dr. Sibusiso Barnabas Ndlamini. In attendance were at least one hundred-and-fifty (150) media industry role players including Directors-General, Chief Executive Officers, Regulators, Chief Operation Officers, Media Managers and Journalists. Most of the topics covered accentuated the theme that content is king such as, the effective content regulation in the digital environment; DTT switchover – distribution and monetization of content; delivering high quality content; content preservation; pan Africa content development and management; local content development; convergence of digital television and mobile network ecosystems in Africa; digital radio management, gender mainstreaming amongst others.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 06:48:17 +0000
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