The Media: Making Democracy Work

These Tool Boxes are intended to encourage and support the translation of the African principles on the legal and political framework for media into reality, using media policy documents of the African Union (AU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) as benchmarks.

The Tool Boxes refer to positive (and negative) experiences gained in these countries that can be considered as the most advanced in the move towards democratic, participatory and effective legal and political reforms.

The Toolboxes cover the following fields:

• Tool Box 1: The Media and the Law [PDF]
  This toolbox attempts to help open up and shed some light on media law and explores the principles of media freedom/freedom of expression and what they entail. The tool offers facts, experiences, and arguments, and includes options for addressing legal issues.
• Tool Box 2: Broadcasting Regulation [PDF]
  This tool box looks at the process involved in developing broadcasting regulations. It deals with the task involved in this development, the bodies that should be in charge of this process, how they should be set up and what powers and duties they should have.
• Tool Box 3: Public Broadcasting [PDF]
  This tool box aims to dissect some of the myths and misconceptions to enable an informed debate on what public broadcasting is about and to assist civil society in advocacy work. This tool box describes how a public broadcaster is managed in comparison to a state broadcaster.
• Tool Box 4: Access to Information [PDF]
  This tool box aims to help accelerate the process of providing free access to information and to help place pressure on the authorities to ensure free access. The tool box also looks at the existing legislation that needs to be reviewed to ensure open and transparent government.

These tool boxes are not meant only for practitioners. The authors hope that they will be interesting for all those dedicated to creating and nurturing a free and open society.