PRESS RELEASE: 9 September 2001
Grahamstown: A Southern Africa Media Trainers Network (SAMTRAN)
that aims “to help build free, fair, and vibrant media as well as a strong
regional identity” through high quality training has been launched on the eve
of the Highway Africa conference at Rhodes University.
The launch of SAMTRAN follows a workshop hosted by
the Rhodes department of Journalism and Media Studies and which drew 50 media
trainers from eight Southern African countries. The participants represented
universities, technikons, NGOs, in-service training institutions, commercial
and independent media trainers who share an interest in improved media training
in the region.
According to research on media training needs in
Southern Africa commissioned by the Maputo- based NSJ regional journalism
training institution, over half of all media practitioners in the region do not
have formal media training.
The advent of democratic governments in many
Southern African countries since 1990 has led to a mushrooming of media
houses-often without the requisite skills and training. Many of these
pioneering media efforts have been short lived.
While there has been a rapid increase in the number
of institutions and type of media training available in the region catering
both for entry level and working media practitioners, the research finds that
most institutions are “offering a bit of everything without performing their
core functions as well as they could.”
The research identifies collaboration between media
trainers as an important means of improving the quality of media training.
The Network will be open to all media training institutions
and independent media trainers in the region and will be housed initially by
the NSJ. Among activities that it will engage in are:
q Developing and sustaining an
inclusive regional network of trainers with agreed values.
q Creating and maintaining a database
of media trainers and training institutes and courses on offer in the region.
q Encouraging and facilitating
the production and distribution of regional study materials for media.
q Identifying partnerships for
innovative regional pilot projects.
q Developing collaborative
initiatives on curricula and training methodologies.
q Developing and coordinating
relevant continuous learning for trainers.
q Facilitating the sharing and
publication of best practices.
q Generating and monitoring
standards for media training in the region.
For further information: contact Sam Phiri, NSJ.
Email: nsjs@zebra.uem.mz, Tel. - 258 1 493 400; or see:
http://journ.ru.ac.za/staff/guy/sadc