Delegates from around the world attended the fifth World Electronic Media Forum, in Accra, at the invitation of the Ghana Broadcasting Company and the African Union of Broadcasters (AUB).

The theme of "WEMF 5", organized in the Ghanaian capital by the AUB, EBU and other sister broadcasting unions on 16-18 November, was "Connecting Africa to the World".

The eight sessions covered issues including migration to digital radio and television, the development of a news and programme exchange for Africa,  media ethics and media freedom, and how to create audiovisual archives for the future.

The EBU's deputy Technical Director, David Wood, chaired a session on IT technologies for low-cost production of radio and TV.

The need for appropriate training was a recurring theme in much of the discussions and a declaration was issued at the close of the sessions. Click here to download the full text: WEMF V Accra Declaration.

The first WEMF was hosted in Geneva in 2003 alongside the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) because broadcasters felt the Summit was too focused on technology  and, despite its name, not enough on either “information” or “society”. The sister unions wished to highlight the role of broadcasters and the programmes they make, in the internet world.

The unions were supported in their view of the importance of broadcasters' content in the information society by Kofi Annan, then Secretary General of the United Nations. Mr Annan attended the first Forum and conveyed the concerns of broadcasters to the WSIS.  He did the same at the second Forum, which took place alongside the second and final phase of the WSIS in Tunis, in 2005, at the invitation of the Arab States Broadcasting Union.  And Tunis Mr Annan urged the unions to continue to organise a WEMF every two years, as he felt the event was too important to end with the WSIS.

WEMF 3 took place in Kuala Lumpur in 2007, hosted by the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union, and the fourth was in 2009 in Mexico City, at the invitation of OTI, the EBU's Latin American sister.