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The African Editors’ Forum (TAEF) fourth conference, kicks off on October 14, 2010 in Bamako, Mali.

About 180 delegates from 36 countries are expected to
attend the conference, which has as its theme Media and the Challenge
of Peace in Africa.

The conference, which is to be attended by African
editors, media trainers and executives according to the organisers will
‘interrogate the impact of war on journalists as well as the coverage
of peace-making and peace-keeping efforts’. It will also focus on ways
of developing the standard and quality of journalism in the continent.
A panel made up of activists, ombudsperson and editors are to discuss
the issue.

Generate debate and knowledge

According to the outgoing TAEF Chairperson, Mathatha
Tsedu, “The intention is to broaden the debate around the standard and
quality of journalism from the narrow confines of getting the facts
right to also include whether media in Africa has the capacity to do
holistic coverage of the intricacies of African life: from the
development initiatives that are seeing economies grow, to its
politics, cultures and the wars that ravage its soul.”

During the conference, African political leaders who
have created media-friendly environments during their terms in office
will be honoured.

Some former African leaders are to be honoured. Among
these are Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki (South Africa), John Kufuor of
Ghana and Alpha Konare of Mali; past Chairperson of the AU Commission,
and Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who in her short term has
already passed the Freedom of Information Act. All five have been
declared ‘Friends of the Media in Africa’.

Likewise, four editors – three of whom were killed by
suspected government agents in different countries, one missing for
over five years after being abducted by security agents in The Gambia,
and another who suffered detentions and torture in the hands of police
before dying in a car accident – will also be honoured and remembered.

The editors are to visit the Timbuktu world heritage
site, where manuscripts predating colonialism are being restored and
kept in the Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Learning and Islamic
Research.

This year’s conference will be held in collaboration with the African Union’s Peace and Security Commission.