Homecoming after 30 years: as Namibia’s media seed blooms

Activities commemorating the 30th anniversary of the landmark conference in Africa that gave birth to the idea and resulted in the UN declaring May 3 as World Press Freedom Day (WPFD), are well under way in the city where it all began, Windhoek, Namibia.

In 1991, a ‘Seminar on Promoting an Independent and Pluralistic African Press’ took place in Windhoek, capital of Namibia, from 29 April to 3 May, attended by journalists from all over Africa as well as UN partner organisations.

I am proud to state that I, too, was one of those invited by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the organisers, to that seminal meeting.

On May 3, 1991, the conference adopted what is known as the ‘Windhoek Declaration’. Among other things, it stated that:
“The establishment, maintenance and fostering of an independent, pluralistic and free press is essential to the development and maintenance of democracy in a nation, and for economic development.”

Following the adoption of the Declaration by the UNESCO General Conference, the UN General Assembly proclaimed the WPFD in 1993.

“World Press Freedom Day, celebrated every 3 May is UNESCO’S flagship programme to draw attention to freedom of expression and press freedom as fundamental human rights for all.”

The first of the moveable feast that the WPFD observance has become, was celebrated in the UK in 1998.

Since then, many UN member countries have hosted it, with Ghana taking its turn in 2018, and, appropriately, this year it is being observed where it all started, in Windhoek.

Now, three decades on, similarly, from April 29 to May 3, media representatives from many countries are holding discussions, in-person and virtually (the new normal), about media issues under the theme ‘Information as a public good’: “It is timely to recognize and promote the conception of information as a public good – as something that helps to advance collective aspirations and which forms the key building blocks for knowledge.”

The impact of Windhoek, which continues to date, included the establishment of various media institutions, such as the Media Foundation for West Africa, founded in Ghana by Professor Kwame Karikari in 1997.

I believe that the Seminar also boosted the confidence of the African press in particular, knowing that the UN/UNESCO were in our corner.

I was invited to the meeting in my capacity as a co-founder and Editor of The Monitor, a pacesetting independent weekly.

My colleague, Mr. Ken Bediako and I launched the Monitor in 1989, the first private newspaper in Ghana to publish eight pages, as opposed to the then norm of four pages.

When out of the blue I received the invitation to the Windhoek meeting, I was extremely excited and felt privileged.

Also, I found the theme exciting, appropriate and timely, because all over the continent, journalists were facing a lot of impediments, and Ghana was no exception, as we of the Monitor had experienced.

The Provisional National Defence Council of President Flt-Lt Jerry John Rawlings was not a friend of the press.

This period was later to be dubbed famously ‘the era of the culture of silence’.

Perhaps I was invited to Windhoek because I represented an example of an independent newspaper editor trying to survive in a hostile political climate and crippling funding issues.

The Monitor was forced to stop publishing mainly because of hostility related to my work as a freelance journalist and a BBC correspondent.

But I guess the full story will have to be told another day!

I’m especially gratified that my plea at in Windhoek for immediate funding for Africa’s independent press was cited in the widely circulated final conference report. It was summed up thus:

“An editor from Ghana appealed to UNESCO and the United Nations to take urgent concrete action to rescue the independent African newspapers from collapse. The difficulties encountered by those newspapers were so grave, she said, that if something was not done quickly, the efforts to promote the independent press would be fruitless and its determinant role in the continent’s democratization would be lost.”

I found out later that, although it came too late for the Monitor, my SOS was instrumental in the provision of UNESCO assistance to at least one independent paper in Ghana.

This was confirmed by UNESCO Deputy Director-General Mr. Getachew Engida in his speech at the Gala Dinner, when Ghana hosted the 2018 WPFD.

One name that stands out in the telling of the WPFD story is that of Alain Modoux, a Swiss national.

In his capacity then as Assistant Director-General in charge of UNESCO’s programme for Freedom of Expression, Mr. Modoux is credited with having contributed immensely not only to the organisation of the 1991 conference, but also following up to ensure the creation of the WPFD.

At the 2013 observance in Costa Rica, he, was honoured with a medal by the then UNESCO Director-General Ms Irina Bokova.

Tomorrow, May 2, there will be a formal opening ceremony in Windhoek, at which the coveted UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize will be awarded.

Created in 1997, it honours the memory of Colombian journalist Guillermo Cano Isaza assassinated in 1986.

Then on Monday, May 3, the celebration will end with a round off plenary and adoption of a ‘Windhoek + 30 Declaration’.

I will of course be there in spirit and, hopefully, via online too, to celebrate the climax of the thirtieth anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration, as a ‘founding member’!

Here in Ghana, on May 4, the Ghana Journalists Association, in collaboration with UNESCO, will mark the Day with a symposium and a flag-raising ceremony.

I feel extremely privileged that I was a participant in the Windhoek Seminar, and that I represented Ghana in an emphatic way.

Above all, I feel honoured to have been part of a meeting in Africa that gave birth to the annual, worldwide observance known as World Press Freedom Day.

ajoayeboahafari@yahoo.com