The Panos Institute in London, which provides an information service specialising in issues for developing countries, has attracted some very powerful backers.

In 2004 the British government's pro-GM Department for International Development (DfID) entered into a partnership with PANOS worth over a million pounds in its first year, with a possibility of a further 5 years of similarly generous funding. Panos also attracts generous funding from major US foundations, like the Ford Foundation.

This pattern of support has been reflected in Zambia where Panos has been funded to carry out a "programme of initiatives... to raise public understanding and stimulate public debate in Zambia on the issues surrounding genetically modified organisms" by the Rockefeller Foundation.

As Panos itself acknowledges, the Rockefeller Foundation "is in favour of informed, constructive use of GM technologies." And despite its efforts to project an image of neutrality, the conduct and analysis of Panos in Zambia seems to be guided by the Rockefeller line. (see 'The GM Debate in Zambia')
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5245
---

African journalists pledge more balanced GM coverage
By Talent Ngandwe
SciDev.Net, October 14, 2005
http://www.checkbiotech.org/root/index.cfm?fuseaction=news&doc_id=11439&start=1&control=217&page_start=1&page_nr=101&pg=1

LUSAKA - Journalists in east and southern Africa have pledged to make their coverage of biotechnology-related issues more balanced, accurate and analytical.

The group issued a declaration outlining their resolve on 7 October in the Zambian capital Lusaka.

This states that with growing pressure on African nations to accept genetically modified (GM) crops, journalists have a critical role to play in educating the public about biotechnology.

Acknowledging that biotechnology is a divisive area dominated by strong pro- and anti-GM viewpoints, the journalists committed themselves to "accurate and truthful" reporting and to "learning and interpreting the science of genetic engineering for the benefit of the public".

The journalists - who hail from Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe — issued their declaration at a workshop organised by the southern African branch of the UK-based Panos Institute.

So far, none of these countries has commercialised GM crops or developed a comprehensive biotechnology policy. The governments of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are in favour of GM technology, while those of Malawi, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe have adopted a more precautionary approach to it.

In May, the Panos Institute released a report that said the Kenyan and Zambian media tended to be one-sided on GM issues and uncritical of the government line.

The declaration appears to tackle this issue, stating: "We acknowledge that an informed media is key to pluralism, thus we must be active in making people aware of the issues, and stimulate debate between different stakeholders."

Among the authors are journalists from government-owned media outlets including Uganda's New Vision newspaper, the Zambia Daily Mail, the Times of Zambia and the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation.

The Rise and Fall of the GM Debate in Zambia by Zarina Geloo - has been widely circulated on pro-GM listservs but there are good reasons for treating some of its claims with a degree of caution.

The article is published by the Panos Institute in London, which provides an information service specialising in issues for developing countries. Panos has an agenda of encouraging "informed and inclusive debate" and when the GM food-aid crisis hit Zambia in 2002, Panos put forward the view that the "heated and difficult" debate over the issue was "tending to drown out the voices in favour" of GMOs.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2459903.stm

The services and perspective that Panos offers have attracted powerful support. In 2004 the British government's Department for International Development entered into a partnership with PANOS worth over a million pounds in its first year, with a possibility of a further 5 years of similarly generous funding. Panos also attracts generous funding from major US foundations, like the Ford Foundation.

This pattern of support has been reflected in Zambia where Panos has been funded to carry out a "programme of initiatives... to raise public understanding and stimulate public debate in Zambia on the issues surrounding genetically modified organisms" by the Rockefeller Foundation. As Panos itself acknowledges, the Rockefeller Foundation "is in favour of informed, constructive use of GM technologies."
http://www.panos.org.zm/downloads/GMOs.pdf

Panos claims its activities in Zambia have been conducted entirely independently of its sponsor but the article below (item 2), although written by a Zambian journalist, very much reflects the Panos line on the GM issue in Zambia. The article argues that the GM debate in Zambia has failed to be inclusive enough and that pro-GM voices have been drowned out. It suggests that the decision to reject GM food aid as well as any debate over GM in Zambia have been essentially dominated and controlled by the Zambian government, which "cranked up its propaganda machinery" and so drew the Zambian public and the country's civil society along in its wake.

In support of this view of opposition to GMOs being essentially government driven, the article states, "Even some well-known critics of the government, such as the Women's Lobby Group, the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR) and opposition political parties, went along with the official stand."

But, in fact, organisations like the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection were so far from merely going "along with the official stand", that they were the focus of ferocious attack from the GM lobby which accused them of engaging in "Activist Scare Tactics" in support of an anti-GM agenda, etc.
http://ngin.tripod.com/forcefeed.htm

Similarly, the claim of