Journalist workshop on music censorship

A workshop organised by Freemuse in March 2007 aims at upgrading the knowledge of African journalists who already work in the field of human rights to also include music censorship issues

Freemuse is in the process of developing a network of 'stringers' who can provide insight information and articles about music censorship for the Freemuse website and publications. Addressing journalists in the countries of Southern Africa, the aim of the two-day workshop is to upgrade knowledge among experienced journalists who are already familiar with and active in the field of human rights, politics and cultural issues, but who tend to overlook that music and the expression of it is also a human right, and that music censorship issues ought to be given much more attention in the media.

One of the outcomes of the workshop will be the short reports which each attending journalist is assigned to write on the situation regarding freedom of expression for artists in their own country. The journalists attending the course are all part of the broader media establishment in their own countries and are used to working with the internet.

The workshop is held in Johannesburg in South Africa over the weekend of the 16, 17 and 18 March 2007. It is moderated by Freemuse board member and veteran Zimbabwean journalist Maxwell Sibanda, and Roger Lucey who is a South African journalist and musician with first hand experience of the subject.