Jacquie Golding-Duffy
A GROUND-BREAKING unity meeting is to be held this weekend in Cape Town between the Black Editors’ Forum and the Conference of Editors.
A culmination of many months of discussion between the two bodies, the meeting is aimed at establishing a single body for editors, senior journalists and other media players in both the print and broadcast sectors.
The new body will focus on media freedom, affirmative action and training and issues of media diversity.
This will be the first time in South Africa that senior media people will speak in a unified voice on a wide range of issues affecting the press, bringing together a full range of black and white editors, as well as print and broadcast journalists.
The meeting will be addressed by Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, Black Editors’ Forum chair and Enterprise editor-in-chief Thami Mazwai and Conference of Editors chair and Mail & Guardian editor Anton Harber, among others.
Conference convener and The Cape Times editor Moegsien Williams said the unity conference could not have been held at a more opportune and critical period”.
Williams said he hoped the conference could outline a “vision for journalism” and “set objectives which will serve the profession, media and the society for many decades to come”.