Media freedom in Africa spotlighted

According to a WAN report, Banda, who was addressing a media roundtable on press freedom in Africa, said that at independence most privately-owned newspapers and media institutions had been nationalised, creating a pattern of state-centred media regulation in Africa that still applied in many countries. The consequences of this early state intervention included serious limits on the freedom of the press such as anti-press laws and the continuing victimisation and prosecution of journalists on the continent.

The state also deployed extra-legal tactics to suppress the media, including the withdrawal of advertising and the imposition of tax on newsprint, Banda said. “This is the hammer of the state.”

But, it wasn't just the state that constrained the press in Africa, the market also contributed.

The commercialisation of African media institutions had promised much and opportunities beckoned, Banda told delegates. These included the promise of media plurality and diversity, heightened competition, an expanded space for public communication and even greater democracy.

‘Captive by the state'

The reality was often that these promises were never realised. Independent media producers were squeezed out of business, the concentration of media ownership was encouraged, there was less investment in worthy but unprofitable tasks like investigative journalism and media content was neglected.

“It seems to me that media freed in Africa is held captive both by the state and by the market,” Banda said.

A number of other speakers from around the African continent addressed the round table, generating discussion and debate among WAN delegates representing media institutions from dozens of countries around the world.

Azubuike Ishiekwene, the executive director of publications for Punch Nigeria Limited, told delegates that access to public information was one of the greatest challenges facing journalists in Africa.

“Journalists have a responsibility to get information themselves… But most newsrooms are under-resourced, data is unreliable, there are poor newsroom management skills, weak economies, weak regulatory institutions and sloppy ethics”.

Ishiekwene said a number of steps were needed to begin addressing these issues. He called on African newspaper houses to share resources, for the introduction of self-regulatory media frameworks, for the implementation of freedom of information laws and for the more creative use of information technology and cellphones.

Kwame Karikari, executive director of the Media Foundation for West Africa in Ghana, told delegates that while it was important that political institutions should be held to account, African journalists also needed to put the spotlight on foreign corporations and donor organisations.

Big corporations were occasionally responsible for environmental degradation and for the pollution of rivers, Karikari said. “The media is weak in exposing these huge corporations, many of whom control local and even national governments”.

He added: “We must also put the searchlight on the donor community. Most governments survive and act on the dictates of this agency or that embassy. Many governments cannot act without the sanction of aid donors. These donor communities are very loud in shouting about corruption in Washington, but never expose this corruption to the media that they see everyday.”

Hostile presidency

New York Times executive editor Bill Keller told the roundtable that many of the challenges faced by the press in America were very different and less dire than those faced in Africa. He added, however, that the current Bush administration was “the most hostile presidency in 30 years”.

This had given impetus to calls for the adoption of a federal shield law in order to protect journalists from being forced to reveal their sources.

Press Freedom activist Raymond Louw also announced that the ‘Declaration of Table Mountain' would be launched on Monday aimed at the abolishment of insult laws on the African continent. Forty eight African countries out of 53 had insult laws on their statute books, Louw told delegates. These laws were often used to threaten, intimidate, detain or even imprison journalists on the continent who were perceived to be too critical of government officials or leaders.

“A great many journalists in Africa work with a gun to their head or a threat of a gun to their head,” Louw said delegates.

Pius Njawe from Cameroon told delegates he had been arrested 126 times in his 26 years as a journalist.

The roundtable also heard addresses from Edetaen Ojo, executive director for Media Rights Agenda, Nigeria, and Jeanette Minnie, a media consultant and freedom of expression activist from South Africa.