04 Sep 2024

There’s need for Africans to share content in news and programmes that have a bearing on the continent and its people.

This was expressed by participants at the five-day 15^th African Union of Broadcasting (AUB) general assembly in Gaborone.

Speaking to the theme of the general assembly: The Future of African Media Facing the Challenges of New Technologies and Climate Change,’ various participants said technology had affected the way content was created and consumed, hence the need to work together to economise content and share amongst themselves as a continent. 

Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer of LABEL TV, Gabon, Mr Mactar Silla emphasised content with African narrative and urged AUB members to commit to developing productions that speak to Africans. 

However, he said as they developed and shared content amongst themselves, they should not close off the world. 

He  also emphasised the use of technology to produce content of good quality.

“As AUB members, we need to exchange culture, skills and create the Africa we want and share Pan Africanism,” said Rwanda Broadcasting Agency (RBA) Director of Channels Mr Kennedy Muyangeyo. 

Mr Muyangeyo said in the past, Rwanda consumed content from abroad, and local producers  eventually started creating Rwandan content which they translated and shared with other African countries especially Nigeria. 

“And we also consume content from other African countries such as Tanzania,” he added. Mr Muyangeyo said currently, Rwanda was migrating to digital space, and had since developed an application, which would allow consumers to use technology at their convenience, ‘as we are trained to embrace digitalisation.’ 

Acting Director of Department of Broadcasting Services, Mr Buyani Zongwani, said content shared among Africans would promote diversity on the continent and attract audience. 

He said more audience meant more ratings and eventually more sponsors for the broadcasting stations. Mr Zongwani also said AUB as a portal that produced and availed content, should also be mindful of Intellectual Property.

He said the summit should engage on such issues, emphasising the importance of  protecting people’s work, as Africa shared content. 

Nigeria has been exemplary in content sharing on the AUB platform, and Nigerian Television Authority Deputy Director of News Operations, Mr Mohammed Ali, said as pioneers on this platform they had been consistent in sharing their content. 

Mr Ali said with 197 fully fledged television stations and 36 states, Nigeria produced local content in 11 channels which were peculiar to each state; ranging from sport, entertainment, news, Parliament, English channels among others. 

“All this allows for more content which we are able to share and post on the AUB platform for other countries,” he said. 

Mr Ali said Nigeria obtained  content from AUB in English, which they translated to various local languages. He said the stations had a purely African programme from AUB content, called African Weekly. 

Moreover, Mr Ali said African countries needed to post more content, and not just be consumers. 

Meanwhile, Russia Today (RT) Head of News, Mr Svyatoslav Shchegolev, also asked AUB to share with them content in various disciplines which are about Africa, by Africans and for Africans. 

Mr Shchegolev said this month, RT would broadcast Prof.Lumumba’s Africa documentary with various topics every week ranging from politics, trade, economics, sport, entertainment, children, media, Pan Africanism and many others. 

He also said a series titled Africa Within would be published. 

He furthermore invited broadcasters and journalists to share their content for the world to also indulge in the rich content that Africa has. Ends