Ebook: AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER : A home-grown analysis of the media landscape in Africa / NAMIBIA 2022

The African Media Barometer (AMB) is an in-depth and comprehensive
description and measurement system for national media environments on the
African continent. Unlike other press surveys or media indices the AMB is a
self-assessment exercise based on home-grown criteria derived from African
Protocols and Declarations such as the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of
Expression in Africa (2002) by the African Commission for Human and Peoples’
Rights. The instrument was jointly developed by fesmedia Africa, the media
project of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) in Africa, and the Media Institute of
Southern Africa (MISA) in 2004.
The AMB is an analytical exercise to measure the media situation in a given
country which at the same time serves as a practical lobbying tool for media
reform. Its results are presented to the public of the respective country to push
for an improvement of the media situation using the AU-Declaration and other
African standards as benchmarks. The recommendations of the AMB reports are
then integrated into the work of the 20 country offices of the FES in sub-Saharan
Africa and into the advocacy efforts of other local media organisations such as
MISA.