NewsletterAMARCAfrica No6 En

8/18/2019 NewsletterAMARCAfrica No6 En

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Content AMARC ACTIVITIES & EVENTS AMARC in Haiti

Declaration of the Conference

Amarc meets with newly elected FAO Director General AMARC and UNICEF sign a partnership agreement

International Media Support (IMS) and AMARC formalize their partnership

AMARC AFRICA NETWORKS NEWS TUNISIA : AMARC advocates for media pluralism NIGERIA : President Jonathan signs Foi Law

MEDIA AND RADIO NEWS Alert in DR Congo: A community radio journalist murdered

Global Events

The Istanbul 4th UN Conference on Least Developed Countries (LDCs), a setback ? RIO 2012: Moving from principles to rights

Useful Links

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Published by AMARC Afric

Publishers :

Oumar SECK NDI YE (President AMARC Afric)

Franklin HUIZES (Vice President)

Karamoko BAMBA (Treasurer)

Marcelo SOLERVICENS (Secretary General AMARC internationa)

Editor: Alymana BATHILY (Coordonnateur AMARC Afrique - [email protected])

July 2011 No 6

AMARC

AfricaQuaterlyBulletin


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The First Caribbean Conference of AMARC: «Com-munication, Vulnerability, Disaster Management and

Climate Change: The Role of Community Radios», held inPort au Prince, Haiti from 4-6 May, 2011 ended with a call fortransparency and accountability in the use of the resources for

the reconstruction of the country and highlighting the need forindependent and community media to guarantee that the

reconstruction will be inclusive, participatory and have a gen-der perspective.

The conference was participated by more than 80 community

radio practitioners and stakeholders from Haiti, Jamaica,Dominican Republic, Guyana, Trinidad Tobago, Guadeloupeand representatives of community radios from Asia Pacific,Europe and Latin America.

The conference analyzed best practices of community radio inHaiti and elsewhere in regards to vulnerability, disaster man-

agement and mitigation, and climate change adaptation froma communication rights perspective. The Conference high-

lighted the need for States to establish an enabling legal envi-

ronment to free the full potential for com-munity radio social impact in disastermanagement and climate change mitiga-

tion and adaptation of populations underrisk. The participants gathered in work-

shops to discuss topics such as commu-nication strategies to ameliorate the pre-

vention of cholera in rural areas, organ-ized by FAO; on humanitarian information in post catastrophe

situations; on the need for women’s participation for increasedsocial impact in disaster management.The Conference debated orientations and strategies for

strengthening community radio networks in the Caribbean.The participants denounced the criminal attack against radio

Tet Ansanm of Carice and called upon the Haitian governmentto hold an investigation and called upon the Haitian govern-

ment to hold an investigation and to prosecute those found

guilty.The Conference was organized by the World Association ofCommunity Radio Broadcasters, AMARC, in collaboration withSAKS (Sosyete Animasyon ak Kominikasyon Sosyal), REFRA-

KA (Rezo Fanm Radyo Kominotè Ayisyen) and AMEKA(Asosyasyon Medya Kominotè Ayisyen), and was supported

by UNESCO, FAO, Commonwealth of Learning, (COL),International Media Support (IMS), EED, Oxfam Novib, and

other community radio stakeholders. ■

AMARC Africa Quartly Bulletin No 6 July 2011 Page 2

AMARC Activities & EventsAMARC at Haiti First Caribbean Conference of Community radios :

Communication, Vulnerability, Disaster Management and Climate Change: The Roleof Community Radios, 4-6 May 2011, Karibe Convention Center, Pieton-Ville, Haiti.

Declaration of the Conference

“We, women and men from community radios, civil

society organizations from Haiti, Jamaica,Dominican Republic, Guyana, Trinidad Tobago,

Guadeloupe, and community radio representatives fromAsia pacific, Europe and Latin America gathered for theFirst Caribbean Conference of Community radioBroadcasters, held in Port au Prince from 4-6 May 2011,declare to national and international public opinion what fol-lows. .It has been a year since Haiti suffered violent earthquakethat caused more than 300,000 dead, more than 500,000injured, a million and half displaced population and consid-erable infrastructural damage. The consequences of theearthquake led the United Nations to consider it as theworst catastrophe of the world in the last one hundred

years.The situation of the Haitian people continues to be extreme-ly difficult. More than one million people still live in streets,in tents, exposed to all risks linked to the climate, sanitationproblems and insecurity. The most affected are children theelderly and women. Women have particularly sufferedalarming levels of physical and sexual violence. There hasalso been a cholera epidemics that has killed more than5.000 people in rural areas and low income neighbour-hoods in the capital.The extent of the damage to people and infrastructure aswell as disasters such as the cholera epidemics are, in partthe result of a history and a colonization that exploited nat-ural resources on the benefit of superpowers and the inter-

vention of international financial institutions such as theWorld Trade Organization (WTO), the InternationalMonetary Fund(IMF) and the World Bank (WB).At the national level, frequent military and civil dictatorships

have contributed to weaken the social fabric and aban-

doned public policies that would permit an economic modelthat favour the amelioration of living conditions of the popu-lation.The Haitian tragedy highlight the profound inequalities ofglobalization that condemn local populations to live independency and paternalism. These considerations leadus to analyze international cooperation and the Committeefor the Reconstruction under the light of their real contribu-tion to development and social justiceWe affirm the exercise of communication rights as a guar-antee to the recognition and respect of all human rights thatare essential to the reinforcement of the State and of socialorganizations, particularly those of women in the country.We call for transparency and accountability in the use of the

resources for the reconstruction of the country and for that,there is need for independent and community media toguarantee that the reconstruction will be inclusive, partici-patory and have a gender perspective.We call for public policies that legislate for enabling envi-ronments for community radios that guarantee their exis-tence as social actors for democratic development with anequitable access to radio frequencies and the support ofpublic resources for their promotion and development.We call upon the Haitian government to make an investiga-tion and to prosecute those found guilty of the attack oncommunity radio Carice in the Nord East of Haiti.AMARC call upon the states , civil society and internationalorganizations to come together in fighting vulnerability and

climate change in the Caribbean and elsewhere enhancingdemocratic process, social justice respect for human rights,peace building and growth with social equity. ■

Port au Prince, May 6, 2011


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Amarc meets with newly elected FAO Director General

AMARC and UNICEF sign a partnership agreement

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and theWorld Association of Community Radio Broadcasters(AMARC) signed a global Memorandum of Un-

derstanding aimed at strengthening the use of communityradio in promoting the realization of the rights of childrenand women, particularly the most vulnerable ones. The

agreement, signed on 26 June 2011, will contribute to locallevel development by involving children and their families

on the discussion of issues related to their own social, eco-nomic, cultural and political realities via community radio.

At global level, AMARC and UNICEF will discuss the devel-opment of guidance for local affiliates as they seek to

expand community radio activities in their countries; how

best to monitor the use of community radio as a local media

channel for community empowerment and participation;and ways to strengthen evaluation of community radios asvehicles for communication.

At country level, the MOU will encourage expanded plan-ning, implementation and monitoring of sustainable com-

munity radio programmes and, by its very nature, boost theparticipation of children and their families and communi-

ties, promoting dialogue with service providers.The Memorandum of Understanding was signed by

Marcelo Solervicens, Secretary General of AMARC, and byRichard Morgan, Director of UNICEF’s Division of Policy

and Practice, on 17 June 2011. ■

The recently elected executive director of the UnitedNations Organization for Food and Agriculture (FAO),José Graziano da Silva, met on July 12th, 2011 the pres-

ident of the World Association of Community Radio

Broadcasters (AMARC), María Pía Matta.During the meeting held in Santiago, Chile, Mr. Graziano da

Silva acquainted himself with the experiences of the commu-nity radio network brought together by AMARC.

The new FAO director recognized the work of communityradios throughout the world. «I believe that, particularly in

rural areas in Latin America and Africa, community radios playa key role in broadcasting information in emergency situationsas well as in relation to the steadily increasing im-pact of cli-

mate change.»Moreover, the first Latin-american director of the FAO empha-

sized the role of community radio programs in democracybuilding. He affirmed that community radios enable «commu-

nity appropriation, encourage participation and stimulate the

idea that citizens can express their opinion.» According to theelected executive director of FAO, «community radio cannotbe ignored because of its multiplicity and its local presence.»

The president of AMARC, María Pía Matta, underlined jointprojects being undertaken by both organizations. In this

sense, she claimed that «that the work with FAO allowsAMARC to have a communication for development perspec-

tive.»During their lengthy conversation, Ms Matta pointed out to the

need to highlight the links between food, agriculture and com-munication. «This is important for people to understand thatcommunity radios are actors of the democratization, and not

only traditional radio stations», she said.Both Mr. Graziano da Silva and Ms. Matta highlighted the

importance to further the initiatives leading to strengthen the

relationship between FAO and community radios. ■

Mr José Graziano da Silva,Mrs Maria Pia Matta

and Mr Alejandro Linhares.


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The World Association of Com munityRadio Broadcasters (AMARC) and

International Media Support (IMS)have signed a Memorandum of Unders-

tanding (MoU) which formalises a long-standing, strong working relationship bet-

ween the two organisations.

The MoU, which was signed during a mee-ting between the two organisations in

Copenhagen on June 28th, is based onmutual sharing of media development

strategies and working practices in thecountries where both organisations are

active.The agreement also involves regular

consultations between AMARC and IMSon programmes and strategies that impacton work with community radios. The MoU

moves the organisations towards greatercoordination and clarity around the nature

of the cooperation for local partners."This MoU is an opportunity to continue our

collaboration within a clear frameworkwhich sets out how best to work together

for the benefit of our members", saysMarcelo Solervicens, Secretary General ofAMARC. Jesper Højberg, Executive

Director of International Media Support,adds: "AMARC and IMS have developed a

strong cooperative relationship in theirwork to help community radios. This MoU

shows our mutual commitment to workingtogether to optimise our efforts in support

of community and social purpose media. It

also enforces our view that partnershipsmust work at various levels." AMARC is the

world’s leading representative organisationfor community radios and brings together

a network of more than 4,000 communityradios, federations and community media

stakeholders in more than 115 countries.International Media Support (IMS) is a non-

profit organisation working to support localmedia in countries affected by armedconflict, human insecurity and political

transition. In more than 40 countries world-wide, IMS helps to strengthen professional

journalism and ensures that media can

operate in challenging circumstances.AMARC/IMS Mission on MediaDevelopment in Tunisia from July 5 – 10.

"Democratization means decentralizationof media, diversity and the choice of whatnewspaper people want to read or what

radio stations they want to tune in to." BenHamad Zackair, Radio Gafsa

Tunisia, July 12, 2011. International MediaSupport (IMS) and the World Community

Radio Association (AMARC) in collabora-tion with Syndicat Tunisien des Radios

Libres (STRL) conducted five communitymedia workshops in different regionalcities of Tunisia (Le Kef, Kasserine, Gafsa,

Gabes and Bizerte) from July 5th to 10th,2011. The objective of the workshops was

to present the concept of community

media, especially community radio andcommunity media centers and listen to the

voices of local journalists and civil societyactors and their perceptions of developingmedia diversity in their region.

The AMARC/IMS and STRL team waswarmly welcomed. The workshops were

well attended by media people, amateurbroadcasters that run internet radios, , civil

society representatives such as women'sassociations, citizenship groups, organiza-

tions of unemployed graduates, AIDS pre-vention groups, revolution committees etc.

The message about the workshops trave-led fast by word of mouth and despite thehot temperatures in the interior of the coun-

try, people travelled long distances to par-ticipate. Each workshop had between 20-

40 participants."Central Tunisia is one of the forgotten

regions of national development, but at thesame time we are the center of the revolu-tion." Chedly Tlili, Radio Chambi FM,

KasserineIn Kasserine the people have been depri-

ved of any regional media such as newspapers, radio or TV by the Ben Ali dictator-

ship. They felt very inspired by the idea ofcommunity media in particular community

radio and community TV. It would largelycontribute to the development of theregion, which is based on agricultural pro-

duction and has rich cultural inheritance.The mission was very timely as the

Instance Nationale de la Réforme del’Information et de la Communication

(INRIC) has just recommended 12 localradio projects to the Prime Minister to be

granted a broadcast license. Among themare three community radio stations (RadioChambi FM, Kasserine; Radio Sawt El

Manajem, Gafsa and Radio 6, Tunis). Inthe different cities all the radio projects that

were recommended for licenses attended

the workshops and said they got a lot of

new ideas on how to run their radio. Theworkshops also constituted a welcomed

opportunity for networking amongst mediaand civil society actors outside of Tunis."We really have to seek direct collaboration

with the miners of Gafsa who are the targetaudience of our radio but we should also

cater to other people especially thewomen living in Gafsa." Fahen

Boukaddous, Radio Sawt El Manajem "Icould imagine that within our commercial

radio station we opened up windows forcommunity radio produced by civil society

associations." Kamel Robbana,Oxygene.FM, BirzeiteThe workshops held last week will be follo-

wed up by IMS/AMARC with concrete sup-port to certain pilot projects and collabora-

tion with existing community media pro-jects as well as new initiatives. The objecti-

ve is to support decentralization and diver-sification of the media in Tunisia andstrengthen the community media sector.

“The energy and the desire for positivechange in Central Tunisia is tangible. There

is a lot of frustration outside the capital;People have only experienced censured

and centralized media coming from Tunis.‘It’s like we don’t exist’, one of the workshop

participants in Kasserine said. But the frus-tration can be channeled positively. Localmedia, community media can give large

parts of the rural population a Voice. Andas a young man put it, ‘we have to be the

change we want to see.’" Lotte Grauballe,IMS

"The development of community radio inthe smaller towns has great potential to

reach out to the large sectors of societywho do not have access to the internetsuch as women and agricultural workers.

It’s important to involve women from thevery beginning of any community media

project." Bianca Miglioretto, AMARC. ■

Marcelo Solervicens, Secretary General of AMARC (left)and Jesper Højberg, Executive Director of International Media Support

during the signing ceremony - Photo credit: Rasmuss Steen/IMS

International Media Support (IMS) and AMARC formalize their partnership


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AMARC Africa Networks News

TUNISIA AMARC advocates for media pluralism

"Democratization means decentra-lization of media, diversity and

the choice of what newspaperpeople want to read or what radio sta-

tions they want to tune in to." BenHamad Zackair, Radio Gafsa;

International Media Support (IMS) andthe World Community Radio Association

(AMARC) in collaboration with SyndicatTunisien des Radios Libres (STRL)conducted five community media work-

shops in different regional cities ofTunisia (Le Kef, Kasserine, Gafsa,

Gabes and Bizerte) from July 5th to10th, 2011. The objective of the work-

shops was to present the concept ofcommunity media, especially communi-ty radio and community media centers

and listen to the voices of local journa-lists and civil society actors and their

perceptions of developing media diver-sity in their region.

The AMARC/IMS and STRL team waswarmly welcomed. The workshops were

well attended by media people, amateurbroadcasters that run internet radios, ,civil society representatives such as

women's associations, citizenshipgroups, organizations of unemployed

graduates, AIDS prevention groups,revolution committees etc.

The message about the workshops tra-veled fast by word of mouth and despi-

te the hot temperatures in the interior ofthe country, people travelled long dis-

tances to participate. Each workshophad between 20-40 participants."Central Tunisia is one of the forgotten

regions of national development, but at

the same time we are the center of therevolution." Said Chedly Tlili, of Radio

Chambi FM, KasserineIn Kasserine the people have been

deprived of any regional media such asnews papers, radio or TV by the Ben Ali

dictatorship.They felt very inspired by the idea of

community media in particular commu-nity radio and community TV. It wouldlargely contribute to the development of

the region, which is based on agricultu-ral production and has rich cultural inhe-

ritance.The mission was very timely as the

Instance Nationale de la Réforme del’Information et de la Communication(INRIC) has just recommended 12 local

radio projects to the Prime Minister to begranted a broadcast license. Among

them are three community radio stations(Radio Chambi FM, Kasserine; Radio

Sawt El Manajem, Gafsa and Radio 6,Tunis).

In the different cities all the radio pro-jects that were recommended forlicenses attended the workshops and

said they got a lot of new ideas on howto run their radio. The workshops also

constituted a welcomed opportunity fornetworking amongst media and civil

society actors outside of Tunis."We really have to seek direct collabora-

tion with the miners of Gafsa who are thetarget audience of our radio but we

should also cater to other people espe-cially the women living in Gafsa." indica-ted Fahen Boukaddous, Radio Sawt El

Manajem

"I could imagine that within our commer-cial radio station we opened up win-

dows for community radio produced bycivil society associations," said aid

Kamel Robbana, of Oxygene.FM, fromBirzeite

The workshops held last week will befollowed up by IMS/AMARC with

concrete support to certain pilot pro-jects and collaboration with existingcommunity media projects as well as

new initiatives.The objective is to support decentraliza-

tion and diversification of the media inTunisia and strengthen the community

media sector.“The energy and the desire for positivechange in Central Tunisia is tangible.

There is a lot of frustration outside thecapital; People have only experienced

censured and centralized mediacoming from Tunis. ‘It’s like we don’t

exist’, one of the workshop participantsin Kasserine said. But the frustration can

be channeled positively.Local media, community media cangive large parts of the rural population a

Voice. And as a young man put it, ‘wehave to be the change we want to see’"

indicated Lotte Grauballe, of IMS"The development of community radio in

the smaller towns has great potential toreach out to the large sectors of society

who do not have access to the internetsuch as women and agricultural wor-

kers. It’s important to involve womenfrom the very beginning of any commu-nity media project" indicated Bianca

Miglioretto, of AMARC. ■


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Alert in DR Congo: A community radio journalist murdered

KAMBALE MUSONIA, 29, A journalistworking for the Lubero Sud commu-nity radio, a station broadcasting

from Kirumba (140 kms from Goma, thecapital city of the North –Kivu province in

Eastern DRC), has been killed onTuesday, June 21, 2011, around 19:30, a

few meters from his house by gunmenwho shot him with three bullets at hischest at point blank.

According to several testimonies pre-sented by the media watch organization,

Journalists In Danger (JED), the journal-ist was coming home from his station,

under a slight rain, when he encountered

his assailants who were apparentlyambushed and waiting for him.

The same sources reported to JED that 4days prior to his tragic death, Kambale

presented a phone in program called «Kirumba toka tshini » ( Kirumba meaningStand Up) and his guest in the program

was Mr. Marcel Tengeleza, president ofthe local civil society movement. During

the program, listeners called todenounce the climate of fear and insecu-

rity created in the city by a gang ofarmed bandits made up of civilians oper-

ating with the protection of some police

officers.JED pointed out that since 2007, 5 other

journalists and media professionnalshave been murdered (Serge Maheshe,

Patrick Kikuku, Didace Namujimbo,Koko Chirambiza et Patient Chebeya) allof them in the nothern and Southern part

of Kivu, making it the most dangerousplace for journalists in the Democratic

Republic of Congo. ■

Source :

Journalistes En Danger (JED)

Media and Radio News

NIGERIA President Jonathan signs FOI Law

Nigerian President GoodluckJonathan has approved a freedomof information law, giving Nigerians

the power and resources to unearthfacts, battle corruption and hold officialsand institutions accountable. Nigerian

civil society groups, including IFEX mem-ber Media Rights Agenda (MRA), have

fought for years to institutionalise trans-parency and accountability.

President Jonathan signed the bill intolaw the day before he was sworn in to

begin his first full elected term on 29 May.MRA has been advocating for the pas-sage of the law for 12 years. «The sign-

ing of the freedom of information bill intolaw is the clearest demonstration ever of

the power of civil society working togeth-er to influence public policy and initiate

reform,» said Edetaen Ojo, executivedirector of MRA. «We are committed to

continuing our concerted efforts to

ensure that the new law achieves its ulti-

mate objective of making governmentwork for the people.»

Under the new law, institutions spendingpublic funds will have to reveal the factsabout their operations and expenditure

and citizens will have the right to accessinformation about their activities. Whistle-

blowers who report on wrongdoing bytheir employers or organisations will be

protected from reprisals.The law also makes provisions aimed at

meeting the information needs of illiterateand disabled applicants. Plus, the lawgives government bodies a week to pro-

duce requested information and makes ita criminal offense to destroy records.

«The new law will profoundly changehow government works in Nigeria. Now

we can use the oxygen of informationand knowledge to breathe life into gover-

nance. It will no longer be business as

usual,» said Maxwell Kadiri, associate

legal officer at the Open Society JusticeInitiative.

The bill was first introduced in 1999. In2007, the bill was approved by theNational Assembly, but former President

Olusegun Obasanjo refused to assent toit before his term expired, ARTICLE 19

had reported.Earlier in the year, when the draft law was

approved, ARTICLE 19 commented,«After more than a decade of advocacy

and struggle, Nigerian civil societyorganisations can now derive a sense ofcomfort and achievement from this

important milestone.» Nigeria is the sec-ond country in West Africa, along with

Liberia, to have a right to information law.

■

Source : Article 19/IFEX

President Goodluck Jonathan signing the FOI Bill into law (Photo, courtesy NEXT newspapers).


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Global EventsThe Istanbul 4th UN Conference on Least Developed Countries (LDCs), a setback ?

The glass isn’t exactly half-full, but it certainly is notentirely empty either. Within

the broad failure of the week-

long Fourth UN Conference on

the Least Developed Countries(LDC-IV) in Istanbul that con-cluded on Friday, many dele-

gates are taking heart in astrengthening south-south front

that has emerged.That front failed to secure a tradeagreement to the satisfaction of

the LDCs. But delegates say thevery act of joint and unified

negotiations by the group hasput them in a stronger position

for bargaining in years ahead.There was no hiding the disap-

pointment over the conference,though. «We were looking for abold, forward looking and ambi-

tious programme of action,»Arjun Karki, chair of the LDC-IV

civil society forum, told IPS. «Wethought member states would

learn from past three conferencefailures.»

The LDC conference, organisedthrough the UN, is held every 10years. That gives countries a lot

of time to prepare progressivepolicies for the LDCs – and then just a

week to give expression to them. Thedeveloped world largely failed, despite

progress at this conference on somecounts.

«We had really been looking for a newaid architecture for the LDCs,» saidKarki. «The present structure is not real-

ly helping LDCs. That is based on theprinciple of market fundamentalism and

neo-liberal policies that have privatisedprofits and nationalised losses.»

But looking at the silver lining, Karkisaid: «we are also encouraged by the

political spirit of the LDC memberstates. They are working unified, veryclose together, and they tried to defend

their interests until the very last minute.So there is some political achievement

in terms of building and strengtheningthe LDC group as a political bloc.»

The partnership between the LDCs andcivil society has really improved, Karki

said. «So we can work together as apolitical group and as a pressure groupin days to come so that our voices are

heard by key development voices whomake policies and programmes.»

There are deeper gains that others pointto, even if these were not shown in a

deliverable new trade deal for the LDCs.«South-south is really picking speed

because the latest Unctad [UnitedNations Conference on Trade and

Development] report for the least devel-oped countries for 2010 says the south

is now the major market for LDCexports,» Demba Moussa Dembele,

chairperson of LDC Watch, told IPS.«Most foreign direct investmentreceived by LDCs comes from the

south,» he said. «Not only in terms offinancial resources but technology

transfer. The emerging companies arebecoming major players in the LDCs’

economies. And loans given by emerg-

ing economies are mostly on a conces-sional basis, or grants.»

That new cooperation was strongly con-firmed and strengthened at the Istanbul

conference, Dembele said. «We wouldlike to push for greater south-south

cooperation because, in our opinion, it’sone way for LDCs to have more political

autonomy to design their own policiesand formulate their own priorities, and toimplement policies that are in the best

interests of their citizens.»A clear sign of progress is what is not

taking place, or at the least not being so

confidently pushed, to corner the LDCs.Prime among these are the EconomicPartnership Agreements (EPAs) that the

EU has been seeking with many African,

Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.The EU has already succeeded in forc-

ing Papua New Guinea and Fiji to signsuch deals.

There is widespread unanimity amongthe poor countries against such agree-

ments that can be seriously damagingto LDC economies in the long run. Thenew south-south front is a bulwark

against such agreements, saysDembele.

«The EU wanted to force these agree-ments on Africa in 2007,» Dembele

said. The EU is easing pressure now

«because the EU is seeing the south-south connection becoming strongerand stronger, especially through China,India and Brazil. These three have very

deep financial and political relationswith Africa. And so the EU is afraid of

losing its backyard, economicallyspeaking.»

For the LDCs, this means an importantnew path, he says. «For 500 years and

more, we have been mistreated byEurope. This south-south cooperation isfresh air for us. It is excellent for our lib-

eration – if, of course, we use it wisely.»

■

By Sanjay SuriIPS

Source : www.trt-world.com


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RIO 2012: Moving from principles to rights

Ensuring Access to Information, Public Participation, and Access to Justice for Everyone

The rights of access to information, public participation, and access to justice are essential to sustainable development.

Useful Links■ UNICEF:

www.unicef.org

■ International Media

Support (IMS):

www.i-m-s.dk/

■ UNESCO:

http://www.unesco.org

■ Article 9:

http://www.article19.org/

■ Journalistes En Danger :www.jed-afrique.org

■ Media Rights Agenda:www.mediarightsagenda.net /

■ IPS :www.ipsinternational.org/fr /

■ Open Society Initiative :

http://www.soros.org/initia-tives/rightsinitiatives/focus/access/news/nigeria-foi-20110309

The 1992 Rio Declaration provided for these rights inPrinciple 10 and Agenda 21 moved them into reality inmany countries. Now renewed commitment is needed

for the full implementation of the rights in all countries.The Rio 2012 Summit provides an opportunity for govern-ments to transform Principle 10 from aspirational goals into

actionable rights. Governments and civil society shoulduse the opportunity to commit together in adopting, imple-

menting, and exercising these rights in support of sustain-able development.

The 2012 Summit’s focus on the theme of improving insti-tutional frameworks should galvanize nations to improve

their national environmental governance, develop interna-tional instruments giving legal force to Principle 10, and

implement these principles into international bodies’ deci-sion- making processes. ■

Source : ARTICLE 19

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