Check out our NEW online marketplace.

Media Censorship in Africa

November 30, 2007

Violations of freedom of expression and media censorship continue to pose a threat to democracy and justice in Africa. Throughout history, fear has been used by oppressive governments as a political weapon to silence anyone who threatens opposition. And in recent years, a number of countries have introduced legislation, especially legislation directed at fear and terrorism, which curbs a number of freedoms and keeps the media in check by providing authorities with increased power to monitor communications. A tendency of African governments to overreact when any kind of publication threatens or challenges the views of the administrations in power remains a common problem in many African countries. As a result, the media and those who express conflicting opinions often become enemies of the government and authorities respond with terrorism.

In many African countries the situation has only worsened with the onset of new wars, the rise of certain aggressive regimes, and the emergence of new forms of media, according to a report released last month by Reporters without Borders. In the fifth annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index, Eritrea was last on a list of 169 countries surveyed for degree of media censorship practiced by each respective government. Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, and Somalia also ranked close at the bottom [1].

Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based organization that measures the level of press and media censorship, said that press freedom in Eritrea is basically nonexistent, and that there was “nothing surprising about this,” and Eritrea, “deserves to be at the bottom.” Eritrea’s privately-owned press was recently banished by the authoritarian President Issaias Afeworki, and the few journalists that had the courage to criticize the regime were thrown in prison. Four have died in detention, and the organization fears that more will suffer the same fate [2].

In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), an atmosphere of impunity and injustice has kept the country’s ranking at the bottom of the index. Journalists continue to be subject to violence, censorship, and arbitrary imprisonment by government forces, political factions, and rogue elements. On Oct. 25, two television reporters were beaten and 38 broadcasters banned over alleged regulatory noncompliance. Higher Education Minister Sylvain Ngabu is known to be responsible for the incident [3].

In Ethiopia, even though dramatic changes have been made for print and broadcast media since the fall of Mengistu, the state still controls most of Ethiopia’s radio stations and the sole national television network. In its 2006 World Press Freedom Review, the International Press Institute (IPI) reported that the prosecution of journalists had “almost silenced independent journalism.” The climate of self-censorship and the imprisonment of journalists are so frequent and threatening, that they have successfully suppressed the courage of those bold journalists once willing to criticize their government [4]. Additionally in 2006, for the first time in history, the Ethiopian government launched itself into web censorship. From May to June, most blogs and oppositional websites were inaccessible in the country. Even though the government denied the allegations, the mysterious disappearance of oppositional online publications clearly points to political censorship [5].

War in several countries, such as in Somalia, is also largely responsible for restrictions on the media. On November 26, restrictions were ordered on the coverage of fighting between government forces and rebels by the few media still operating in the capital city of Mogadishu by Mayor Mohamed Omar Habeb [6]. The rules include a ban on reporting military operations by the federal transitional government and Ethiopian troops without the written consent of the authorities. They also create a ban on interviewing government opponents in the country or abroad. And anyone who violates the rules is treated as a criminal. As this case demonstrates, it is often very difficult for journalists to report in war zones, and several have been killed or censored as clashes become more frequent. The rights of journalists are often not recognized, and many are accused of supporting opposing sides.

Mr. Francis B. Nyamnjoh, Associate Professor and Head of Publications and Dissemination with the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) argues that in Cameroon, the government is more interested in containing the media politically than in providing its proprietors and practitioners the enabling economic environment they need for professional excellence and financial independence. This has brought about the underdevelopment of the press by imposing on it a series of constraints. No one who knows what a newspaper looks like (in content and form) in Nigeria, Kenya, or South Africa, would take seriously what in Cameroon passes for newspapers. According to Mr. Nyamnjoh in the same paper, Cameroonians (and the press, increasingly), have come to know from the current struggle for a more democratic dispensation, that to oppose does not necessarily imply to aspire for, or to promote, democracy or collective interests. Media practitioners today can all name, together with the critical public, persons who have, at one time or another in the last eight years, hidden under the nebulous cloak of democracy and concern for the public good, to catapult themselves into positions where they have excelled in nothing but dictatorial excesses, or simply championed what Jean-François Bayart (1993) has termed 'politics of the belly'[7].

Even in countries that traditionally held good standings and were celebrated for their press freedoms, incidents have driven them to fall lower in the index. In Benin, for the first time in several years, journalists were imprisoned for defamation or insults made toward the president.

In a declaration marking the 25th anniversary of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, AU leaders vowed to rededicate themselves “to ensuring respect for human and peoples’ rights” as a prerequisite to their common vision of “a united and prosperous Africa”[8]. However, the AU’s failure to speak out against press freedom abuses in several countries cast doubt on its commitment to freedom of expression. The IIJD demands that the governments of African countries be held accountable for their behaviors toward the media, and hopes that the AU would ensure freedom of the media is included in their charter. It also recommends that unrestricted, free, and independent media be recognized and protected by law in every country regardless of the possibility of criticism of the government. The IIJD believes that a free and independent media is necessary for the development and sustenance of demo¬cratic governance. The freedom of expression is the most important force to strengthen peace and pre-empt conflict. It plays a critical role in achieving individual freedoms and developing democracy.

_____________________________________________________________________________