• On 1 February 2005, several media organisations, among them the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) and the International Press Institute (IPI), expressed their concern over NEPAD's ongoing African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, saying: 'The African Union has devised the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) on good governance, underscoring that the APRM is designed to foster democracy in Africa. Yet, the APRM's good governance criteria have a serious defect in that they omit a key requirement for good governance: the fostering of free and independent news media.'

Furthermore, the Review Mechanism was developed and is carried out by government agencies with no or not sufficient involvement of civil society organisations and those who are affected by government policies. The African Media Barometer is meant to overcome these defects in regard to the media.

• Media in Africa are the topic of numerous national or regional studies mainly written by scholars for national or regional consumption. There is no mechanism to achieve results that give an overview over the state of the media that would enable readers to compare developments in various countries.
• International freedom of the press surveys such as the one annually produced by the New York-based Freedom House collect data from correspondents overseas, international visitors, findings from human rights and press freedom organisations and a variety of news media. The criteria are set and the data evaluated at headquarters.

The Friedrich Ebert Stiftung's Southern African Media Project and MISA took the initiative to start the African Media Barometer in April 2005, a self assessment exercise done by concerned and informed citizens in each particular country according to a number of general, homegrown criteria. The benchmarks used have to a large extent been lifted from the African Commission for Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) 'Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa', adopted in 2002, and attached to this report as appendix 1. (It was largely inspired by the groundbreaking Windhoek Declaration on Promoting an Independent and Pluralistic African Press [1991] and the African Charter on Broadcasting [2001].) The ACHPR is the authoritative organ of the African Union mandated to interpret the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights which is binding for all member states.

42 indicators (see appendix) have been developed divided into four sectors:
1. Freedom of expression, including freedom of the media, are effectively protected and promoted.
2. The media landscape is characterised by diversity, independence and sustainability.
3. Broadcasting regulation is transparent and independent, the state broadcaster is transformed into a truly public broadcaster.
4. The media practice high level of professional standards.

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