southwatch

Media inequality and growth

Parts of Africa have a dynamic media, while a lack of journalists in other countries reflects a dismal economic or political atmosphere.

While a rich European country such as Norway can boast of one journalist for every 500 citizens, in Ethiopia the ratio is one to 99.400 people. In South Africa, a country with a growing number of newspapers and a vibrant radio market, there is one journalist for every 1300 citizens. This according to the recent report of the African Media Development Initiative (Amdi) produced  by the BBC World Service Trust.

In a comment on the report in Mail & Guardian Online, South African journalism academic Guy Berger points out that Ethiopia has the continents biggest army. He also highlights the fact that between 2000 and 2005, the number internet users in Zimbabwe grew by 1 900 percent.
“Possibly the escalation is a side effect of the Mugabe regime's media repression - driving Zimbabweans to seek independent information online,” writes Berger.

The report, which looks at 17 African countries shows that:
* Radio dominates the mass media spectrum with state-controlled radio services still commanding the biggest audiences in most countries but regional (within country) commercial stations demonstrating the largest consistent increases in numbers, followed by community radio, where growth, although significant in certain countries, has been inconsistent.
* Television is less widely available, especially in rural areas, although it is seen as a growing force.
* Newspapers remain concentrated in urban centers with varying growth patterns across the countries.
* Adoption of mobile telephony has been the most spectacular, far exceeding uptake of the Internet.

According to the report the potential of the media to contribute significantly to Africa’s development and governance is enormous.
“ Fostering a stronger media in Africa is an indispensable part of tackling poverty, improving development and enabling Africa to attain its development goals,” writes Stephen King, Director of BBC World Service Trust, in his introduction.

The key barrier to media development is the control that states exert over media. The report underlines the importance of:
*  ensuring freedom of expression and access to information by way of legislation.
* consistent policy on the independent allocation of licences;
* protection of journalists;
* strengthening of independent regulatory frameworks.

In the report the farcical nature of some anti-media laws becomes apparent. The Angolan section tells of a recent case of defamation brought before the courts. Graca Campos published in 2003 a dossier concerning the 50 richest people in Angola, along with the sources of their wealth. Copies of the publication were bought up by the government instantly to avoid distribution. Campos was charged with defamation – notwithstanding the complaint of one person that his capital had been grossly underestimated, and that the publication had supposedly harmed the trust put in him by his business associates.

By Jan Speed

- Free media more important than elections

Free elections are part of democracy, but a responsible media is even more important.

This is the view of Norway’s Minister of International Development, Erik Solheim (photo). He points out that the elections in Angola in 1992 were perfectly organised and democratic. Yet, the ultimate consequence was that they plunged the country into a new 10 years of civil war, because the elections happened in a vacuum. It was only in 2002 that peace settled over Angola. A date for new elections has not been set. While there is relative press freedom in the capital Luanda, but independent and critical radio stations are waiting for licences to broadcast more widely.
- Support of media is a central part of our development agenda, said Solheim at a seminar on Free Media in Fredrikstad, Norway this week. However, his government has not increased the funding for the media development sector in next year’s budget.
The minister underlines the fact that journalists in conflict areas have a special responsibility to give the view of the different sides in the conflict, and must take responsibility in trying to reduce tensions. He was particularly scornful of the media in Sri Lanka were he has been involved in the peace process for many years.
- Journalists in Sri Lanka are part of the problem in the sense that they deliberately propagate lies. They fuel the conflict and make a solution more difficult.
- Without a responsible media, democracy is not possible, says Solheim.
By Jan Speed
Photo by Pierre de Brisis/Utenriksdepartementet

Can the media be peacemakers?

On the ground blue-helmeted soldiers of the United Nations Mission to Liberia (UNMIL) secure the young democratic government of Liberia. In the long run peace has to find its roots in a society that for years has been torn apart by conflict.

Media workers in Liberia are trying to figure out how to do that.
«Media has a role to play in reconciliation.  Media can be a double-edged sword – it can cause havoc and be a source of conflict resolution. Up until now I have not seen it doing enough of that. Now, after the storm we must talk about how to mend fences, that is all part of conflict resolution,» says Elizabeth Hoff, previously one of the most respected journalists in Liberia. She is now Deputy Minister of Information.

Another respected journalist, Wellington Geevon-Smith of STAR Radio, invited me to a studio discussion on media in post-conflict situations. His questions reflected the dilemma local media have to face. His father was brutally executed by Charles Taylor’s (now charged with war crimes by an international court) forces.
«We all have our own stories of abuses. How do we avoid them colouring our reporting? How do we select our words?»
«Some say that to dig up human rights abuses of the past will just reopen old wounds?»

All relevant and challenging questions that Liberians have to face. Dan Smith of Alert International  had a clear message to Liberians when interviewed on Radio Veritas:
«In the end peace in Liberia is dependent on Liberians. They will have to make peace in Liberia or nobody will,” he said. He also added that in his experience it was important that countries on their way out of armed conflict is was important that ordinary people were given a voice.
«That is why community radio is important,» he said.

By Jan Speed/ Liberia

New fears for Guatemalan journalists

Police stand guard outside the house of a well-known Guatemalan publisher. Journalists who investigate corruption or narcotics do not sign their articles for fear of revenge attacks.

Being arrested by armed soldiers or kidnapped by police agents was the nightmare of critical journalists during the 36 year Guatemalan civil war. Ten years after the signing of the peace accord new dangers lurk.

“In the same way as we were careful when writing about politics during the war, the journalists are now cautious when writing about the drug traffic,” says Ana Maria Rodas, prominent journalist and writer in Guatemala City. She counts herself lucky to have come out of the war years alive.

“ We walked a very narrow path. Journalists had to have credibility both with the leftist movements and with the military government. I had that. That is probably the reason I was not killed,” says Rodas.

One of her protégés, Ana Caroline Alpirez (picture), Editor-in-Chief of the daily elPeriodico, started her career in the mid-1980s at the start of the democratic process.
“The army no longer has the power that it did. We no longer live under the threat of torture. It is now possible to discuss human rights,” says Alpirez. Instead of calls from the military it is more common these days to get calls to the newsroom from businessmen threatening to withdraw advertising.

“Organised crime is a problem. We have to be careful with our stories both to protect sources and our notes. I have to accept that some of my reporters are scared. Instead of signing their articles by name, we use the “redaccion”-byline,” says Alpirez. An armed guard is on duty outside the newspaper offices – as is the case outside all businesses in Guatemala. There is a high level of violence in a country disentangling itself from the mindset of war.  It has, according to US officials, become a transit zone for drugs being smuggled north from Colombia. Many ex-police and military are involved in crime, and have maintained political connections.

Two years ago one of Guatemala’s leading publishers, Jose Ruben Zamora was attacked in his home by a group of men. They held a gun to his head and threatened him, his wife and children for two hours. Two members of a now disbanded military intelligence unit have been arrested and charged with the crime.
“The case goes to court later this year. They will probably be freed,” says Alpirez. Zamora still has a police guard outside of his home, and maintains that ex-President Alfonso Portillo was behind the attack.

In a country where more than 150.000 people were killed and 50.000 disappeared during the civil war the issue of finding those responsible is still a sensitive issue. Journalists who cover the discovery of new mass graves have been threatened and followed.

The introduction of democracy and the peace process resulted in an opening up of a vibrant media. Initially many different voices had access with new columnists and debates.

More women came into the newsrooms and issues such as domestic violence and corruption in government started being addressed. elPeriodico joined four other national dailies a few months before the signing of the peace accord in 1996, adding an important voice to the political debate.

Veteran journalist Ana Maria Rodas is still frustrated by the media’s use of the newfound freedom.
“We write about scandals in government. Why do we not write about scandals in private enterprise? Initially there was a lively press after the peace agreement. Gradually things have changed. I think it is due to pressure from the economically powerful families who run this country,” says Rodas.

“There have been positive developments in the capital. The reality is very different in the provinces. That is another world. There are fewer journalists and the media groups are weaker. They are more susceptible to pressure from local politicians, gangs or businesses,“ according to Evelyn Blanck of DOSES, an organisation that monitors press coverage and tries to improve professional standards among journalists.

She thinks that there is generally a lot of direct pressure from advertisers and that there is a tacit understanding among journalists and editors not to criticize the advertisers.
- Self-censorship is more of a problem than government censorship, says Blanck.

According to surveys carried out by DOSAS there is little coverage of poverty and important issues in the provinces, this in a country where 52 percent of the population live below the poverty line.

Facts:
Newspapers
*Prensa Libre – daily
* Nuestro Diario - daily
* La Hora - private daily
* elPeriodico - private daily
* Siglo Veintiuno – daily

Over 40 radio stations and 6 broadcast TV-stations.

By Jan Speed

Angry with Guatemalan media

Writer, lecturer and journalist Ana Maria Rodas is angry. Having worked through the dangerous and stifling years of the Guatemalan civil war she expects more from her media colleagues.

“Now we have the right to speak, but most of the newspapers have become ‘yellow’. They write a lot about murders, violence and scandals in the government, but we do not hear about the scandals in private enterprise,” says Ana Maria Rodas. She writes a couple of columns, but wants to start her own blog.
“I still have a lot to say. There is too much light stuff and violence is not the only issue in this country. If we were able to survive the war days, we should be able to do more,” she says.
There are a number of issues she thinks do not get the attention they need:
* Gender issues.
* The poverty gap – more than half the Guatemalan population lives under the poverty line.
* The lives of rural people.
“In the same way as we were careful to write about politics during the war, newspapers are now reluctant to write about drugdealers,” Rodas maintains.
During the 36 year war close friends were killed or disappeared.
“It was awful. We had to be aware the whole time of the dangers of publishing certain articles.”
This year it is ten year since the peace accords brought a formal end to the armed conflict. The breeze of democracy started blowing in the mid-80s.

By Jan Speed
Guatemala

A need for seeing

“Journalism desperately needs a return to terrain, to the kind of firsthand, solitary discovery of local knowledge best associated with old-fashioned travel writing,” writes journalist and author Robert D. Kaplan in an essay in the Columbia Journalism Review.

Kaplan describes the ideal journalist. The one who goes out into the world to see – alone, away from the pack. This is also very much how Kaplan works when on assignment for The Atlantic Monthly. His essay is a critique of much that it served as viable information in newspapers, on the Internet and on TV.

“The most dangerous thing a writer can do sometimes is to describe what he sees in front of his face, for the very ideals and assumptions that many of us live by are dependent upon maintaining a comfortable distance from the evidence.
The Internet now makes facts so effortless to obtain that there is the illusion of knowledge where none actually exists,” writes Kaplan.

All journalists and people who are interested in the world should read his piece.

by Jan Speed

Radio renaissance in Africa

Commercial, private FM radio stations across Africa have changed the media, entertainment and political landscape in ways that cannot be reversed. Africa will never be the same again.

Writing in the Mail & Guardian, professor Tawana Kupe, Head of the School of Literature, Languages and Media Studies at Wits University points out that commercial FM radio has given a voice to opposition parties and alternative factions.

“Even more exciting, they have introduced a new brand of irreverent talk show - comparable in quality to some of the better programmes on South Africa's Talk Radio 702, “ he writes. Such programs allow new opinions to be heard.

Heads of state in countries such as Malawi, Angola, Uganda, Senegal, Nigeria and Ethiopia do not always like what they hear.

“The emergence of these FM stations, with their combination of independent information, popular entertainment and mass marketing of goods and services, are contributing to the renaissance of African economies and societies. These are the very aims of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad), and as such should be celebrated and encouraged.”
Kupe points out that Nepad and Africa in general should focus on the radical reforms necessary to allow this revolution in communications to continue.
by Jan Speed

Press freedom undermined

The African Union meeting in Khartoum is still not a source of hope for increased media freedom in Africa.

* The Khartoum government restricts the access of journalists to the western Darfur region, and denies visas to foreign journalists.

* On Sunday Ethiopia expelled the correspondent for The Associated Press and IrinNews, Anthony Mitchell for "tarnishing the image of the nation repeatedly, contravening journalism ethics" and "disseminating information far from the truth about Ethiopia,” according to the state media.
Last Friday he had again  reported on renewed clashes between police and protesters in the capital, Addis Ababa.
The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has protested the expulsion:
"The Ethiopian government, which has imprisoned 16 journalists since November, is demonstrating yet again that it is bent on silencing independent reporting." said CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper.

* In Uganda church leaders have condemned the government directive restricting foreign journalists to within 100 kilometres from Kampala, saying it raises serious questions as the country prepares to hold presidential elections in a month's time. 
"This is a bad sign for press freedom in Uganda," the Rev. Grace
Kaiso, the executive secretary of the Uganda Joint Christian Council, which unites the Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant denominations, told Ecumenical News International.

Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni has recently often used the Robert Mugabe tactic of attacking foreign donors and media as the cause of problems in the country.

by Jan Speed 

Security police film journalist meeting

Sudan is waiting for democracy. The security police still think it necessary to film journalists discussing freedom of expression.

In the apartheid museum in Johannesburg, South Africa you can watch video footage that the security police filmed during the freedom struggle to use as evidence against activists. It now is documentation of the road to democracy. It is uncertain whether the films that the security services in Khartoum recorded at a media roundtable at the beginning of December 2005 will ever be seen again.

Journalists, media owners and representatives from civil society in from both Northern and Southern Sudan met at a National Round Table on Freedom of Expression and independentM edia in Sudan, assisted by the London-based organization, Article 19 and Norwegian Peoples Aid.

A similar meeting in Rumbek i Southern Sudan earlier in the year had demanded media freedom and widespread changes in present laws as a concrete follow-up on the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed by the SPLM in the South and the government in Khartoum. Such challenges to the status quo are clearly of interest to the security services in the north. They made sure they filmed the Khartoum meeting.

Independent media workers from both the north and the south did not flinch from calling for laws that guarantee Freedom of Expression, Freedom of the Press, and access to information.

by Jan Speed

Democracy delayed in Angola

Is Angolan president Jose Eduardo dos Santos afraid of elections? It is almost four years since the killing of rebel leader Jonas Savimbi and only in May will voter registration start through out the country.

The president and his MPLA-elite are living in oil-financed luxury in a country of enormous poverty. They are expected to win the elections in most parts of the country, but there is a lot of dissatisfaction.

The South African news agency Sapa reports that President Jose Eduardo dos Santos said he would not set an election date until after the registration and the approval of the Council of the Republic, a consultative organization representing political parties and various civil society groups.

Last Thursday the National Electoral Commission was appointed after long delays. They estimate that it would take fully six months to register voters, and that his could not realistically start until after the end of the rainy season at the end of May or beginning of June.

Observers said this meant there was little likelihood of staging the elections in 2006 as had been expected.

Dos Santos's ruling Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) has been in power since independence from Portugal in 1975. It signed a peace deal in 2002 with the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita), which has converted from rebel army to the main opposition political party. Unita leader Isaias Samakuva has, according to Sapa, announced plans to run for the presidency. Unita has demanded that elections be held this year.

Dos Santos, in his end-of-year speech, said that nearly four years after the long civil war's end, Angola now had "room for diversity of opinion, political differences, debate and discord within the limits of respect and legality, “ according to the Chinese news agency Xinhua.

The limits are clear for all to see: The Catholic radio station, Radio Ecclesia, is still prohibited from broadcasting outside the capital city, Luanda. The handful of independent weeklies still battle to get cheap newsprint and to distribute copies to regional cities and towns.

by Jan Speed