By NATION Correspondent
Journalists from all over the world meet in Nairobi in June to discuss the Western media's negative reporting of Africa.
The Nation Media Group chief executive, Mr Wilfred Kiboro, said yesterday the International Press Institute Annual World Congress and the 52nd General Assembly to be held on June 1-4, would strive to reveal the positive side of Africa.
Mr Kiboro, the chairman of the event's organising committee, was briefing Foreign Affairs minister Kalonzo Musyoka and the Press at the ministry heaquarters in Nairobi on the preparations.
Said Mr Kiboro: "Reporting on Africa by the Western media has been unfair. Africa is not all about famine, disease and wars. The meeting will examine the positive side of Africa."
Mr Kiboro said about 500 senior journalists, CEOs and managers of major media organisations would attend the meeting at Grand Regency Hotel.
He said the media had a great impact in shaping opinions, and that Africa had been sidelined by the West due to bad publicity.
He termed the peaceful transition witnessed in Kenya after last year's General Elections as a major milestone illusrating that Africa should not be taken for granted.
"It is a demonstration that Africans can manage their own affairs. The peaceful transition means alot for economic recovery and improvement of the people's living standards," Mr Kiboro said.
He called for the freeing of the media, saying the transition could not have been possible without a free press.
Other major themes in the meeting will be the continent's experience in democracy, press freedom, reporting in conflict areas and the future of the media in Kenya.
Mr Kalonzo said his ministry was working with that of Tourism and Information to ensure the meeting is successful.
IPI was formed after a meeting at Columbia University in New York in October, 1950, in which editors from 15 countries agreed to form a global body to push for press freedom.
It promotes international understanding and exposes injustices and human rights violations around the globe by carrying out on-the-spot investigations on on reports of press freedom violation.
The organisation is made up of some 2,000 editors, publishers, broadcasting executives and journalists from over 100 countries.
Among key speakers expected at the conference are the Secretary General of the United Nations Koffi Annan, South African President Thabo Mbeki, Senegalse President Abdoulaye Wade, the spiritual leader of the Ismailia community His Highness the Aga Khan and Nigerian literature nobel prize winner Wole Soyinka.