SOS hosts three Continental consultations for ACHPR’s Resolution 631 in 3 months

The SOS Support Public Broadcasting Coalition (SOS), with the support of UNESCO, successfully led a series of three consultations in the last three months of the year, at various continental conferences. SOS is supporting the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR)’s Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa, Honourable Commissioner Ourveena Geereesha Topsy-Sonoo to implement Resolution 631. All consultations are conducted under her auspice.  These engagements form part of ongoing consultations to develop guidelines for universal access to public service content in Africa, in a bid to strengthen information integrity in the digital age.

DataFest Africa 

SOS hosted a session at DataFest Africa in Uganda on 30^th and 31^st October 2025. This session explored what public service content should look like in an era dominated by algorithm-driven digital platforms and examined ways to ensure that such content remains universally accessible. There was emphasis on the fact that as digital platforms become central to how information is produced, distributed and consumed, it is important to ensure that public service content is easily available on these platforms. The discussion also explored how existing digital rights frameworks could be leveraged to guarantee universal access to public service content across Africa along with how female community-based content creators and indigenous language producers can be supported to contribute to the independent production and distribution of public service content. 

African Investigative Journalism Conference

The SOS Coalition in collaboration with Media Monitoring Africa (rebranding to Moxii Africa) hosted a networking session on the ACHPR Resolutions 630 and 631 on 5-7 November 2025 in Johannesburg. The session featured Article 19’s Patrick Mutahi’s who reflected on emerging cases across the continent, offering analysis grounded on practical and current contexts that demonstrate the relevance and operationalization of the Guidelines on the ground. He also reflected on how the Guidelines can address journalists’ safety amid growing online harms and violence against journalist, which ultimately undermine and threaten journalism in its entirety. 

African Women in Media (AWiM)

Joined by Commissioner Topsy-Sonoo, on 4 and 5 December 2025, SOS proudly hosted a consultation at this year’s African Women in Media (AWiM) Conference. The discussion explored the role of digital platforms in ensuring that public service content is visible, accessible and guided by clear principles rooted in fundamental human rights. Further, the discussion examined the relevance and importance of these guidelines in today’s information ecosystem, along with the need to ensure a clear distinction between content that serves the public interest and content that merely is interesting to the public. It also explored how Resolutions 630 and 631 complement each other for a more coherent continental framework for safeguarding information integrity in Africa. 

Thank you to all those who have taken part in the different processes thus far. If you have not done so already, we kindly request that you to complete this Google form to contribute to the Resolution.  As consultations continue in 2026, SOS will consolidate all inputs into draft Guidelines which will still require your further contributions. We encourage everyone to be on the lookout for the draft Guidelines and make their voices heard to ensure the Guidelines are fit for purpose, inclusive and responsive to Africa’s evolving information landscape.

For media inquiries contact:

SOS National Coordinator 

Uyanda Siyotula 

Natcoord@soscoalition.org.za

060 691 2462