BY ADDISALEM MULAT
There is no question that establishing Pan-African media plays a huge role in making conversant the wider international community with the self-evident truth of the continent of Africa. Other than that bringing Pan-African media to fruition plays a paramount role in changing the negative image of the continent.
In actual fact, Africa has been a victim of the discredited media outlets’ bogus stories. As they have been spewing negative information about Africa as if it is a dark continent known for its backwardness hunger, and other negative things, the attitude towards the continent has been negative. In consideration of the foregoing, the positive image of Africa in several instances has been heart breaking.
As the media outlets have been fully controlled by other entities intending to disseminate misinformation about the continent of Africa in a negative way, the continent is deprived of nondiscriminatory and genuine representations. To everyone’s dismay, the media outlets have been spreading negative news about the continent aimed at imposing their hidden agenda going behind closed curtains by attaching significance to the continent’s bad things among a great many things.
As the media outlets have been persistently reporting negative stories about Africa intending to distort its good image, the continent’s reputation has been badly damaged. Until today, they have continued deliberately making the global community not to know the real image of the continent of Africa.
Though the continent has been inundated with a plethora of natural resources that can take the entire world to the next level of development, they have been time and again preoccupied with blackening the positive images of Africa. They hate to death reporting the truth about the continent.
A case in point, in the course of the conflict that lasted for two years in Ethiopia, the media outlets disseminated bogus stories with the purpose of mystifying the wider international community. Apart from dragging through the mud the positive images of the continent, they left no stone unturned to create a false picture of the country by spreading erroneous impressions about the country.
It is public knowledge that unless the people of the continent of Africa work in close collaboration to change the false narrative of the media outlets by establishing its own pan-African media to tell its own stories to the entire world, the so-called international media for sure will continue bewildering the global community with their usual cock and bull stories and casting a slur on the positive image of the continent of Africa.
It is common knowledge that if the people of Africa fail to pull out all the stops to change the bad narratives in the global stage, Africa’s image will remain lopsided.
Addressing the AU Summit lately, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on the subject of the issue said Africa’s voice on the world stage needs to be heard loud and clear. Africa must also be represented on important international bodies.
Today, more than seven decades after the creation of the United Nations, Africa remains a junior partner without meaningful input or role in the system of international governance. This is particularly true of the United Nations where Africa lacks representation on the Security Council and is underrepresented in a variety of ways.
It is the right time to reform and revitalize the United Nations system to reflect current global realities and ensure that it is a more representative and equitable body. Only fair representation and transparency in those institutions can usher in a just era in multilateralism.
“Consistent with our Ezulwini Consensus of 2005, we should collectively insist that Africa’s reasonable request for no less than two permanent seats and five non-permanent seats in the UN Security Council be adopted.”
Equally important is Africa’s media representation on the international stage.
Africa is often portrayed in the international media negatively. The endless representation as a continent troubled by civil wars, hunger, corruption, greed, disease and poverty is demeaning and dehumanizing and likely driven by a calculated strategy and agenda.
The stereotypical and negative media representations of Africa not only misinform the rest of the world about our continent, but it also shapes the way we see ourselves as Africans.
Telling our own stories and shaping our own narratives must be our top priority.
In this regard, I would like to propose to this august body the establishment of an African Union Continental Media House.
“This media house could be organized to provide authoritative news and information on our continent, fight disinformation, promote our collective agenda and offer opportunities for Pan African voices to be heard.”
In a previous exclusive interview with The Ethiopian Herald, Anteneh Tsegaye (Ph.D.) Assistant Professor at Addis Ababa University, School of Journalism and Communication said, “There is an urgent demand for Africa to have its own media for the purpose of face negotiation, rebranding itself and connecting Africa together in all core endeavors of the spirit and dimensions of Africanism.
The interference of the former colonizers of Africa in terms of injecting western political ideologies did not help Africa move forward to brand its pleasant face to the world and engage itself in development efforts in an African way. It has to say no to foreign adopted political and development ideologies in the spirit of Pan-Africanism to portray its real face and rebrand its actual identity in a collective manner connecting Africa together.
Media is one of the war fronts for this cause. It is vital to remind the power of media in this ‘fight’ given the current western media abuses in reporting African issues. Added to these, it is significant to think of Pan-African media to air African views and connect Africans together to craft a sense of African union and brotherhood. The African Union, as the most mandated institution for Africa and Pan-Africanism, should establish a global media house to air or voice African issues. This proposed media house should engage in an African face negotiation process in communicating Africa to the world.
The image and story of Africa have been distorted and wrongly portrayed for a long and it is time to establish a continental media house that tells the true story of the continent, Addis Ababa University President Professor Tassew Woldehanna said.
The president told ENA that the media plays a major role in selling the policies and letting people buy the ideas while creating a good image of their respective countries.
Even if Ethiopia has done very excellent things at home, it is not popular outside and that is because there are no African continental media, he said.
“So, we need our media to tell our people, to tell the world (the truth) and attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and good things about Africa. There are not only bad things in Africa. There are many good things, attractive places where we can attract investors. But the media has not played its role in Africa. I support the idea of the Prime Minister that Africa should have its own media,” the professor elaborated.
The American journalist of Ethiopian origin, Hermela Aregawi said on her part that Africans need to tell their own story.
For a long time the story of Africa and Ethiopia has been told by outsiders, she said, adding that “more and more of us need to tell the story from different angles and that is the only way we are going to get a closer and more accurate picture of Africa and Ethiopia.”
“There needs to be a pan-African media network and I think it needs the support of all the governments that are interested in this venture. The Ethiopian Prime Minister has shown interest in the pan-African media network, so you would expect him and other leaders that think alike to give some level of support to the network.”
“But I also think that pan-African media network needs to be independent, can’t be government owned. It needs some buying from the AU because I think for any leader or any organization that wants to do good for Africa having their voice or entities that can help tell their voices is important,” she noted.
According to the American journalist, the envisaged African continental media house should be independent of any influence from the AU or any organization; but should be working hand-in-hand.
As the continental bloc has the ability and capacity to establish Pan African Media, all member states should join hand for its realization no matter what the challenges may be
The Ethiopian Herald 26 February 2023
