African journalism and the struggle for democratic media

Journalism in Africa is faced with many problems and obstacles. The most serious are threats to journalists’ safety, and attempts to curb the freedom of the press. There are daily reports coming out of the continent of journalists being arrested, beaten up and even killed by both governments and by criminals.1 According to the 2003 report by Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) about 180 journalists were detained in Africa during 2002, and more than 80 news media were censored in Africa during 2002.2 Some parts of the continent are worse than others. The situation on the Horn of Africa is particularly difficult. In Eritrea journalists are detained continuously. The Committee to Protect Journalists3 has singled out the country as one of the ten worst places in the world to be a journalist. But it also applies to the situation in Ethiopia and Somalia. In other parts of the continent the situation in Zimbabwe is of special concern.4 Here journalists are arrested regularly. The government constantly attacks the independent press, and the country’s only independent daily The Daily News was banned in September 2003, it was allowed to publish again in January 2004 after a lengthy undecided court case, to the vehement protests of government, only to be banned again later after a split ruling in the supreme court. In June 2004 yet another newspaper, the weekly Tribune, was banned in Zimbabwe. The Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe reported that the paper was closed by the government-appointed Media and Information Commission (MIC) for allegedly violating sections of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA). The MIC accused the publishers of the paper, Africa Tribune Newspapers (ATN), of not notifying the commission of material changes such as change of ownership, the masthead, trade name and title of the paper as required under section 67 of AIPPA. MIC also cited the hiring of an unaccredited journalist as another reason for cancelling the paper’s licence.5 The international press has, to an increasing degree, been prevented from reporting from inside Zimbabwe. For example, in February 2005 three Zimbabwean journalists working for the international press fled the country after serious threats from the police and security forces

Democracy · Journalism · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Sociology · African history and culture studies · Law

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