Southern Africa’s Media Landscape: A Path Forward
As the Spaces of Solidarity Summit enters its second day, Dr. Tabani Moyo, MISA Regional Director, reflected on the progress made in the region’s media landscape over the past three years. The strides taken have laid a solid foundation for future advancements, but the journey ahead is complex and multifaceted.
The region is facing unprecedented challenges, including high-density saturation of elections, rapid technological changes, global conflicts, and the devastating effects of climate change. These factors have created a perfect storm that threatens the very existence of the media ecosystem. However, Dr. Moyo emphasized that the region’s diversity and resilience can be leveraged to build an agile movement that prioritizes peace, accountability, competitive media, and citizen responsiveness.
The Summit’s program is designed to delve deeply into the structuring mechanisms that can respond to these complex factors. The organizers, members, and support partners have expressed gratitude for the program’s design, which aims to mobilize the people of Southern Africa to shape and advance the right to express, access information, and engage with a media that is fit for purpose.
Dr. Moyo’s message was clear: the region has the capacity to achieve its objectives, and with unwavering effort and strength, it can build a better society. The call to action is for the people of Southern Africa to stand together in solidarity, imagining, re-imagining, and constructing a future that prioritizes peace, accountability, competitive media, and responsiveness to citizens.
As the region navigates these challenging times, it is crucial to recognize the historic significance of Namibia, the birthplace of the Windhoek Declaration on Diverse and Plural Media and its successor, Windhoek +30–Information as a public good. This declaration has been instrumental in shaping the region’s media landscape and will continue to play a vital role in the years to come.
The journey ahead will be complex, but with unity, determination, and a commitment to the values of peace, accountability, and media freedom, the people of Southern Africa can build a brighter future for themselves and their communities.
