Nairobi Hosts 4th East African Media Summit

By Staff Writer

NAIROBI---The 4th East African Media Summit is underway in Kenya’s capital Nairobi. It is a collaborative effort of the East African Community Secretariat with the East African Business Council (EABC).

The two day summit started on 14 ending 15 March 2011 at the Hilton Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya.

It has brought together media owners, journalists and the business community to discuss the role of the media in the integration process.

Kenya’s Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka opened the summit challenging the  media owners to start outlets of their work that are universal to East African Community (EAC). He noted that although this could be reflective of the fact that editorial policies favour national issues, it unwittingly exacerbated the limited public awareness on EAC integration.

 “It has been observed that majority of the existing media in the region overwhelmingly cover individual country issues and dedicate comparably less space for EAC issues,” said Mr. Musyoka.

Business community representative Mr Patrick Obath, praised the EAC member states for creating an enabling environment for media to express itself freely. He challenged journalists to continue upholding fairness, accuracy and professionalism and seal the misconceptions associated with the EAC through their outlets.

“We are witnessing a greater sense of freedom of speech, greater degree of professionalism in journalism because the environment is very conducive,” Mr Obath said.

The East African Community (EAC) endeavours to realize a common market protocol that became fully fledged in January 1, 2010 with a population of 130 million people. In the current state, the common market, partner states have committed to operate as a single market in which there is freedom of goods, persons, labour, services and capital.

Benefits across the region are felt by the introduction of a single market arrangement and to-date, intra-regional trade between the EAC partners has increased exponentially.

The East African Business Council (EABC) is the umbrella organization of the private sector in East Africa. Established in 1997, EABC is at the forefront of facilitating private sector participation in the integration process of the East African Community (EAC).

EABC works closely with East African Community Secretariat, East African Legislative Assembly, governments, regional economic communities, multilateral groups and the business community to improve the region’s trade and investment climate.