Prisons Media Programme – South Africa

Mediaworks provides training opportunities as well as access to facilities for media production and distribution for the least heard voices of society, including, among others, the Prisons Media Programme.

Mediaworks has been conducting media training at the Hawequa Youth Centre on the rural outskirts of Wellington since 1999. The programme is built into the curriculum of the prison school, as an extra mural activity. Fifteen participants are selected per year to undertake training in the following subjects: media awareness, print media production, life skills and basic design.

The outcomes of the training include the production of banners, t-shirts and posters. After training, prisoners produce media for local civic structures and for events such as World Aids Day and local government elections.

The project has a mediatraining component and results in the ongoing production of prison newsletters by and for inmates. The newsletters act as a medium for education, information dissemination and entertainment as well as conflict resolution within prisons. A newsletter is produced quartly at Pollsmoor Female Section called "Women's Link". When the project was started at Hawequa three editions were produced, but the organisers say they have subsequently stopped because of resouces.

Inmates are given an opportunity to input into the course curriculum during focus group discussions during the needs assessment phase. Further input is solicited during the evaluation process. The media awareness module includes a unit on Gender and Communication thus all participants are exposed to gender issues - both men and women.

Technology

The programme aims to build the confidence and self-esteem of prisoners through improved communication; promoting basic literacy, media awareness and gender awareness; introducing prisoners to career opportunities in the fields of media and communication; opening up channels of communication and cooperation between prisoners and local community-based organisation and improved communication between prisoners and prison authorities.

Key outcomes of the training are the production of regular prison newsletters as a tool to promote horizontal and vertical communication in the prison, to inform, educate and entertain prisoners and to facilitate the use of media as a tool for conflict resolution.

An expanded programme is based on the success of media training conducted by Mediaworks Rural Programme (MRP) at the Hawequa Youth Centre (Correctional Services) over five years and aims to accommodate requests made to Mediaworks to extend these services to other prisons in the rural areas.

The project aims to provide entry-level access to training opportunities and facilities for media production, thus giving the prisoners the means to exercise their fundamental right to communicate in today's information age.