The African Union Commission (AUC) and the African Media Initiative (AMI) are scheduled to launch a pan-African media portal in March 2011, APA learns here on Wednesday.

The announcement was made following the recent meeting on the Pan-African Media Portal (PAMP) in Nairobi, Kenya, on 21 December 2010.

Representatives of the AU Commission, A24 Media and AllAfrica Global Media, who are partners on the implementation of this ambitious project, attended the meeting.

The Nairobi gathering was a follow-up to the informal joint experts meeting organised by the AU Commission and the European Commission (EC) in Addis Ababa in March, 2010 on the theme "Media and Development".

The launching is scheduled to be held after the AU summit in Ethiopia later this month.

"Media play a critical role in promoting economic and human development. In order to help African media participate effectively and efficiently in the development efforts of the continent, the AU Commission has partnered with key players to develop a world class web platform that will serve as a central point to access information about the fast changing African media landscape," said the AU.

This platform will gather information about media houses ; list the national legislation of AU member states on media, present journalism and communication schools, and provide a full list of all relevant media stakeholders in each African country.

Participants in the Nairobi meeting agreed upon priority areas to implement in the first quarter of 2011 with the objective of launching a public website no later than March.

"We are happy to see that this important project is finally underway. It has the full support of the EC, AU Commission and its chairperson Jean Ping. It is a new concept that will provide the hub of all African media information, and contacts, including the Diaspora, a unique and unifying concept- one that has never been seen before," said Habiba Mejri-Cheikh, the Commission spokesperson in charge of Communication and Information. --APA