“Mobile phone technology and its dramatic penetration in Africa and the whole world, has opened a myriad of possibilities for empowering the ordinary citizens to access information and generate content,” he said.

Kabwato was opening the 12th edition of the Highway Africa’s two-day conference at Rhodes University, South Africa.

The conference under the theme: “Citizen Journalism, Journalism for Citizens,” attracted 700 ICTs journalists across Africa.

Kabwato said mobile technology services can no longer be viewed simply as tools for social networking, but as platforms for ordinary people to produce and distribute the news.

“The advent of citizen journalism means that audiences not only consume media, but are able to generate and publish it too, using popular online platforms such as MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube,” he said.