The ‘African Media Barometer’: home-grown analysis
fesmedia Africa
Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung
Most African countries enshrine principles of freedom of expression in their constitution, but how do they compare?
The African Media Barometer (AMB) identifies and analyses the shortcomings and best practices in the legal as well as practical media environment of different African countries.
Using a variety of African documents, including the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa, as a benchmark, the AMB was jointly developed by fesmedia Africa, the media project of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) in Africa and the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) in 2004.
The recommendations of the AMB reports are integrated into the work of the 19 country offices of the FES in sub-Saharan Africa and into the advocacy efforts of MISA and other media organisations.
Mareike le Pelley, head of fesmedia Africa, describes the AMB as ‘a tool to self-assess the respect for freedom of expression and information and the state of the media in a specific country’.
Le Pelley explains that the AMB was conceived ‘in recognition of the crucial role of freedom of expression and media freedom in good governance and democratisation processes’.
