The African Daily Voice Group announced on Monday the launch of a new continental news agency: ADV (www.AfricanDailyVoice.com/en).
Based in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, the multinational company specialized in content, and the media, has a newsroom in Casablanca (Morocco) and offers multilingual services (French, English, Arabic).
“Information networks remain dominated in our countries by Western media. Their stories of African events do not always reflect the true identity of our people, our cultures, and our languages,” says Toussaint Alain, African Daily Voice CEO’s. “They impose their own vision of the world, anxious above all to preserve their interests.”
Alain believes that “this situation is not without risks. We can no longer leave these agencies alone to inform the African public of what is happening in Africa or elsewhere. Events, their genesis and evolution are rarely presented to the outside world objectively and accurately. Images of a miserable Africa continues to persist in the Western press.
That said, “the independence of information, and the plurality of sources are of the same importance today as the struggle against imperialism and neo-colonialism. They play a vital role in the process of political, social, economic and cultural liberation of our continent,” Toussaint Alain says
Driven by a long-term vision for Africa, the founders and investors of the new media group rely exclusively on African skills to develop two-way content, based on pure information, but also on interaction between people and institutions.
To take up the challenge in a very competitive market, ADV has structured around ten regional desks: Algiers (Algeria), Abidjan (Ivory Coast), Douala (Cameroon), Kinshasa (DRC), Bangui (RCA), Johannesburg (South Africa), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Lagos (Nigeria), Dakar (Senegal) and Antananarivo (Madagascar). These pools are responsible for collecting, processing and disseminating information in the regions concerned.
ADV teams will be covering African events around the clock with professionalism. “Our reporters will strive to ensure that reliability, objectivity and neutrality are respected. Our vocation is to become a strong brand, which will highlight its pan-African and civic role, “says Toussaint Alain.
Through its network of correspondents, ADV will provide comprehensive coverage in text, photo, video and computer graphics of African news. All themes will be covered: politics, economy, environment, culture, media, high-tech and technology, social events, major continental or world sports events, etc.
Available in French, English and Arabic, ADV products and services will be available via a website, a newsletter and an application on tablets and smartphones. ADV will also be present on social media: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Google+. The agency will also use instant messaging applications to communicate with users via these platforms.
Last but not least, ADV aims to consolidate its continental and international presence. “Thanks to cooperation agreements, we are considering the full deployment of our agency worldwide, particularly in Asia, Europe and America. We will therefore rely on a network of media partners in Africa and outside the continent,” concludes Toussaint Alain.