ECCF
Speech for MDDA Roundtable 28 / 03
/ 2009
ECCF
is a stakeholder forum consisting
of independent community media, local
government and civil society. ECCF
was established in 2006 with the purpose
of addressing communication challenges/
gaps in the province. The organisation
is housed at the Department of Journalism
and Media Studies at the Walter Sisulu
University in East London.
ECCF believes that good relations
between civil society organisations,
the local media and local government
structures are necessary for a strong
democracy. It is through this belief
that ECCF strives to professionalise
small commercial independent community
newspapers in the Eastern Cape. This
effort is made to ensure greater viability
and more meaningful journalism of
independent publishers.
By professionalizing independent community
media ECCF hopes that they will:
• Comply with industry standards
in terms of media ethics and laws;
• Achieve higher standards of
quality that will enable them to offer
an improved service to their readership
and thereby maintain and increase
their readership.
Eastern
Cape Communications Forum sees the
main role of community media as
to close the communication gap that
exists between people and local
government. This also includes:
• Reporting on policy and
delivery at all levels of government
in a manner that will be easily
understood by the community it serves,
• Reporting on community news
as and when they happen
• Acting as a service delivery
watchdog by reporting fearlessly
on corruption and mismanagement
• Producing quality content
for an informed vibrant society
ECCF
is excited about this media literacy
education project and believes that
there is a lot that can be learned
from young people and believes that
media can be used as a tool to reach
out to fellow students, teachers,
parents community at large and government.
There’s a good example of
a student newspaper in Grahamstown
where students from various high
schools write about issues affecting
them issues like drug abuse, teenage
pregnancy etc
Once
again ECCF would like to encourage
students to also consider a career
in Journalism so that they can educate
and inform. ECCF’s doors are
opened and is willing to assist
where it can. Make the most of this
weekend the success of this project
relies entirely on you.
I
THANK YOU.
Nomawethu Sbukwana
ECCF: Programme Coordinator
eccf@wsu.ac.za
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