London conference discusses public broadcasting in Africa

The dominant characteristics of PSB are that it is owned, paid for and controlled by the public and that it provides programming that services the public interest. Participant said any definition of PSB must revolve around the idea of programming that services the public interest, rather than simply commercial or government interest.

The objective of the conference was to discuss in depth the various experiences and challenges faced by the public service broadcasting organisations in Africa and come up with recommendations. These recommendations may inform and act as general guidelines for the authorities to create their own model of PSB based on local situation. Besides broadcasters and regulators from Africa, legal experts, researchers, academics, practitioners, policy makers, students and resource people from other parts of the world contributed to the seminar proceedings to give a holistic perspective to discussions.