Highway Africa Experience 2010

Junior Bester
Highway Africa is an organisation that is aimed at uniting African journalists through various internet medians such as blogs, emails and even the social media phenomenon Twitter. They address this issue through four programmes. The first of which is research. Highway Africa denotes a lot of time and energy towards research. Research remains one of the key components for any journalist that wishes to have a successful career.
The second programme is education and training. As I mentioned above Highway Africa wish to make use of internet medians to rely its messages across the board, so it is important for everybody to be able to properly utilise these medians. This can be done through training and practice.
The third programme is the sharing of information amongst each other. By making use of the following medians we are now able to share information freely and easily. This is a huge advantage as Highway Africa is not only looking to improve individual journalism but rather journalism as a whole within Africa.
The fourth programme and ultimately the flagship of Highway Africa is the African Voices in the Global Media Place conference. It is an annual conference held by Highway Africa and it is where all the previous programmes culminate to achieve Highway Africa’s ultimate goal.
The conference is designed to allow distinguished and educated delegates to network with current and future media professionals so as to educate each other on the problems facing African media, which is the oppression faced by African journalists within Africa and the lack of an African voice in the global media empire.
The oppression of African media is a serious problem has it hampers the growth of free speech within Africa. If we as future journalists become afraid of telling or speaking the truth because we are afraid of what out very own government will do to us then we will surely fail as journalists. As journalists we have the duty to rely the truth to the public and we should be protected to do so. Therefore it is important for organisations such as Highway Africa to stress this issue as they have the influence and contacts for a solution to be made.
African media has for so long just been a channel for the whole world to hear about the problems arising in Africa. Delegates of this conference believe it is time for that to change. The whole world turns a blind eye when Africa achieves beyond expectation or better than their Western counterparts so it is up to Africa to form a stronger voice so that we as Africans can tell the world when we achieve and keep the world informed about the news and affairs that arise from Africa.
Being at the conference has been a good experience for me so far as it shows me how to properly interact with delegates. The experience I believe has also helped me a lot as it has shown me the manner in which to properly approach speakers during seminars and the confidence to pose questions towards them. The Highway Africa conference also enables me to network with various people that can benefit me in the future and it allows me to make valuable contacts that I can hopefully utilise one day for my own personal advantage