Readith Muliyunda (2003 - 2004)

Zambia

Zambia being a young democracy whose government requires checks and balances by civil societies and the media, journalists have an onerous task to help develop democracy and attain high standards of governance.

Readith is from Zambia, where she was a business reporter with the Times of Zambia, the largest daily journal in the country. She previously worked as a reporter in radio broadcasting with Radio Phoenix. She studied journalism at college and was attached to the Zambian News Agency. She gained prominence writing a series of articles on harsh working conditions at a cloth manufacturing company where workers had been dying of lung cancer.

While a Sauvé Scholar, Readith was featured on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) radio’s Daybreak show, McGill University’s CKUT and in Montreal’s community newspapers as a commentator on the international media’s coverage of Africa.

Readith's Sauvé Scholar project was a documentary series Africa From Afar about Africa's distorted image. The documentary looks at Western stereotypes of Africa and how the media portrayal of the continent has shaped people's negative perceptions and images of Africa, exacerbating Africa's problems instead of providing a forum in which to come up with long-lasting solutions.

In the first two years following her time as a Scholar, she published a Montreal newspaper, African Affairs, devoted to disseminating news from black communities locally and around the world.

Readith, who recently published the first issue of African Link, a magazine devoted to the African Diaspora, is a member of the Board of Directors of Order of Kush, an international honor society devoted exclusively to African scholarship, and heads Order of Kush Montreal.

Links:

• Dialogue with former Prime Minister of Canada Paul Martin [AfriqueCanada.tv]
•  8 October 2009 "What does not kill you, makes you stronger" At Sauvé; House, Mwila Readith interviews Kenya's 2007 Parliamentary candidate Flora Terah, who recounts the horror of losing her only child during the election that sparked violence.
• 14 February 2008  Time to honour the real discoverers [The Times of Zambia]
• 10 February 2006 READITH MULIYUNDA HONOURED AT MONTREAL CITY HALL
• 28 April 2004 Africa explained  [McGill Reporter] Africa is often perceived as a dark, backward and war-ravaged place. Sauvé Scholar Readith Muliyunda explains how the international media help perpetuate these inaccurate stereotypes.

Country of origin

Zambia