New appointments for SAEF to strengthen media freedom

At the World Press Freedom Day celebrations, held on Tuesday, 3 May 2011 in Windhoek, 14 editors of the Southern African Editors' Forum (SAEF) resolved to strengthen the regional body by bringing in inactive members of the body. Five interim committee members were also elected.

The five interim committee members are:

chairperson Jovial Rantao, deputy editor of The Star in Johannesburg, South Africa
Mpho Dibeela, editor, Botswana Guardian, Gaborone
Wilie Mponda, secretary general of the Zimbabwe Association of Editors
Tangeni Amupadhi, editor-designate of The Namibian; and
Elizabeth Mule, co-ordinator of the Editors' Forum of Namibia.

SAEF also resolved that countries within the region should embrace self-regulation as a best mechanism of promoting media freedom; that media ownership and control should be free of government influence and pressures; and that countries in the region should allow more access to information for their citizenry by legislating for freedom of information and access to information.