Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe

Content

(a) Groupe de Recherche et d'Echanges Technologiques
(b) The Institute for Media, Peace and Security
(c) PANOS Institute Paris
(d) UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation)

(a) Groupe de Recherche et d’Echanges Technologiques

GRET is active in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe however it has a particular focus on the African media sector. Specifically, it designs and implements local development programmes, undertakes studies, research and assessments, organises training sessions and seminars, runs information and exchange networks, and publishes specialised works. GRET is working to strengthen the emerging sector of professional and independent media as an important element in building democracy and hopes to help professionalise its structure at the levels of economics and journalistic expertise levels as well as in its relationships with governments. GRET acts for the economic and social development of developing countries through a combination of research, action and communication.

211-213 rue La Fayette

75010 Paris, France

Tel +33-1-40 05 61 61, Fax +33-1-40 05 61 10

gret@gret.org

www.gret.org

Contact

Pierre Daubert, Coordinator Media Cluster

Publications

Donor’s Offers in Support of African Media Handbook

Programmes

Media

Information Systems and Communication for Development

(b) The Institute for Media, Peace and Security

The Institute for Media, Peace and Security, based in Paris, is part of the United Nations-affiliated University for Peace in Costa Rica. The Institute’s courses, research, conferences, workshops and other activities aim to serve the development and strengthening of free media worldwide. They work from the notion that free media are an indispensable foundation of democracy, and democracy tends more often than not to serve peace. The institute’s actions ultimately aim to help prevent international conflict. The Institute aims to be an intellectual tool for preventive diplomacy and to educate people in the many ways the media interact with issues of conflict, peace and security. By its education and research programmes, and by its day-to-day contacts with UN and regional peacekeeping bodies, the Institute intends to contribute to new thinking about how free media can help prevent conflict, and alert decision-makers as well as the general public, to looming risks of war.

43 rue d’Assas

The Panos institute Paris has an extensive tri-annual Media for Peace (MP) programme, which aims to reinforce the capacity of journalists and their professional organisations and civil society in general. This inter-regional programme is developed under the coordination of the Institute Panos Paris and is co-produced by the Panos Institute London (in relation to its antenna of Kampala) and Panos Institute Dakar.

The programme is based on the conviction that the work of the journalists in Africa today is affected by the fact that national and local media, private and independent of governments, are in full expansion while new technologies have radically transformed flows of information, inside the countries as well as between them. Thanks to the Internet, the coverage of African conflicts produced by African journalists can henceforth reach the audiences of the countries of the North in times of conflict. Coverage of these conflicts exposes journalists to basic questions about their professional practice. The Institute Panos Paris, in conjunction with its antennas in West Africa (Dakar, Bamako and Accra) started to intervene in the field of conflicts in 1994. This intervention has had five principal directions

• supporting the production and circulation of information on conflicts by the African media,

• research, with the objective of providing the means for the media to evaluate their role and reinforce their capacities (studies on the role of the media in certain conflicts in West Africa Liberia (‘98); Senegal - Guinea Bissau (‘99),

• publication of various documents resulting from the seminars or research initiated within the framework of the programme,

Environnement, journalisme et conflits dans la vallée du fleuve Sénégal (Saint-Louis, Sénégal, august 1994)

Des médias pluralistes en Central Africa, pour la démocratie et la paix (Yaoundé, June 1999)

Des médias pour la paix en Afrique comment les soutenir et les renforcer ? (Accra, April 1999)

Le role des Medias comme acteurs de Paix en temps de conflit. Final Report, Kigali 2002.

Construction de la paix dans la région des Grands Lacs Rencontres entre professionnels des médias et acteurs de la société civile. Nairobi 2002

(d) UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation)

The main objective of UNESCO is to contribute to peace and security in the world. Therefore, UNESCO promotes the collaboration among nations through education, science, culture and communication in order to further universal respect for justice, the rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms which are affirmed to the peoples of the world, without distinction of race, sex, language or religion, by the Charter of the United Nations. UNESCO is committed to supporting Member States, particularly the developing countries, to strengthen their communication capacities, to improve the training of communication professionals and to promote the concept of public service broadcasting. Activities in the areas of communication and information include the training of journalists, promoting free press, providing access for all, promoting ICTs for Education, strengthening libraries and archives, and preserving documentary heritage.
Place de Fontenoy 7