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Fresh Vigilance Is Needed To Protect Media Freedom Across Africa

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With the permission of  The Conversation Africa, we republish this article written by Jeff Conroy-Krutz, from Michigan State University and published on August 4, 2019.

One of the least enviable tasks of journalists in the US must be reporting on how the public trusts their work less and less. A 2018 study found that only about four in ten Americans had at least a “fair” amount of trust in the media. Also, in a June 2019 survey, a full third of respondents agreed with President Donald Trump that the news media are “the enemy of the people.”

The US isn’t unique in this respect. A study last year by the Reuters Institute and Oxford University found that, across 37 countries, trust in the media stood at only 44%. Countries that had particularly abysmal scores included Hungary, Greece and South Korea. And in Africa, new data suggests citizens’ support for press freedoms is in sharp decline.

This news isn’t just bad for journalists’ self-esteem. Erosion in public confidence in the media could embolden leaders with autocratic tendencies. It could also provoke violence against journalists, limits on freedoms of expression, and an undermining of democracy more broadly.

Declining support for free media

Afrobarometer, an independent African research network, has been tracking African citizens’ attitudes on political, economic, and social issues since 1999. Its latest round of surveys, conducted between 2016 and 2018, included more than 45,000 respondents in 34 countries.

Most say they support democracy. But there are indications that confidence in institutions like elections and the media might be declining.

In surveys conducted between 2011 and 2013, a majority (56%) of people interviewed in 31 countries supported the media’s right to publish any views and ideas without government control. Only 39% said the government should have the “right to prevent the media from publishing things that it considers harmful to society”.

But in the intervening years, support for media freedoms has declined sharply. The most recent survey showed that only 46% supported press freedoms; 49% favoured some government censorship.

This marks the first time that Afrobarometer has found government restrictions to be more popular than media freedoms.

These declines are not limited to a few countries. Echoing trends elsewhere in the world, nearly every country in Africa has seen sharp declines in support for press freedom in the last decade. The biggest drops were in Tunisia (-21 points), Uganda (-21), Cabo Verde (-27), and Tanzania (-33).

These responses suggest that people are reacting to many of the same changes in media environments that are causing disenchantment around the globe. These include increasingly partisan outlets, social media that facilitate the spread of hate speech and “fake news”, and politicians who find it increasingly easy to downplay critical reporting by making reporters themselves targets.

Threats to the free press

Across much of Africa, journalists and other media practitioners are finding it increasingly difficult to work. Governments in Uganda and Tanzania are enforcing new restrictions on media.

In addition, full and partial shutdowns of Internet and social media are becoming increasingly common. In 2019 such shutdowns occurred in Benin, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Sudan and Zimbabwe. Chadians went without social media for 16 months before services were restored in June 2019. The government of President Idriss Déby, who has been in power since 1990, claimed the shutdown was necessary because some were using the Internet for “malicious purposes.”

Many of these countries have had broader problems with a lack of democratic accountability. But even Ghana, perennially rated as one of the continent’s most democratic countries, has seen serious threats to press freedom recently. In June 2019, two journalists – Emmanuel Ajarfor Abugri and Emmanuel Yeboah Britwum – were arrested, apparently due to their reporting on a powerful government minister.

Why public support for free media matters

Declines in support for press freedoms are concerning. Increased support for government limitations on media doesn’t suggest that there is broad popular sentiment favouring Internet shutdowns, closures of television stations, and violence against journalists. And it does not mean that people in Africa generally support returning to the days of state-run monopolies of broadcast outlets and the heavy-handed censor’s red pen.

But it’s imperative that African leaders are called to account for any encroachments on media freedom. While rhetorical attacks on the press by leaders like Trump, Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte, and Poland’s Andrezj Duda have received attention for stoking popular vitriol against journalists, these leaders are also taking advantage of deeper and long-evolving declines in popular support for the media.

In some African countries threatening words too often turn into action. Examples include Uganda’s “social media taxes” intended to squelch opposition voices, the teargassing of newsrooms in Zimbabwe, the criminalisation of reporting certain kinds of content in Burkina Faso, and impunity for violence against journalists.

A failure to denounce these actions could – even unwittingly – contribute to dismantling one of the most essential underpinnings of democracy: a free press.

SAEF Statement on World Press Freedom Day 2018

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The Southern African Editors Forum (SAEF) joins the rest of the world in commemorating World Press Freedom Day (WPFD) with this year’s theme: Keeping Power in Check: Media, Justice and the Rule of Law.

On this occasion, May 03, 2018, SAEF notes with dismay the continued deterioration of media freedom in some SADC (Southern African Development Community) countries where several cases of harassment, imprisonment, surveillance, threats and arrests of journalists mainly by political players, have been witnessed.

  • In Malawi, there were a few noticeable media violations. The government demonstrated its commitment to promote free press through the enactment of the Access to Information Law in 2017. However, the government continues to prevent parastatals from doing business with private media houses, as a way of forcing them to dance to their tune.

 

  • The recent protests by the Botswana media workers union over the abuse of journalists at the hands of senior government officials and state security agents at the inauguration of the new president is of great concern. There remain threats to charge journalists including Sunday Standard editor Outsa Mokone with archaic sedition laws with government doing very little to remove such statutes from the Constitution. The Botswana Government insists on pursuing the case.

 

  • In Zimbabwe, this year’s celebrations come at a time when the country is preparing for elections and the media is calling for the repealing of repressive laws such the Access to information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), Broadcasting Services Act (BSA) and the Official Secrets Act (OSA). The laws have been used to arrest and detain journalists over the years. Of one such case, on 29 April 2018, Daily News news-editor Gift Phiri was arrested and briefly detained while covering a Zanu PF primary elections meeting in the Midlands town of Zvishavane.

 

He was accused of taking pictures at a meeting between Zanu PF officials and polling station agents at a Police Station. He was charged with one count of criminal trespass in terms of Section 132 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act and paid an admission of guilt fine of US$20. SAEF is however impressed by the work being done by the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe (VMCZ) in embracing self-regulation as a best mechanism of promoting media freedom.

 

  • In South Africa, SAEF notes with great concern several cases of assault on journalists in the country. A Network 24 journalist was attacked by the Economic Freedom Fighters Deputy President, Floyd Shivambu in the Parliamentary precinct. Also SAEF condemned the raid on the house of award-winning investigative journalist Jacques Pauw by the terrorist fighting “Crimes against the State” unit of the Hawks. On a positive note South Africa now ranks 28th on the World Press freedom Index.

 

  • In Zambia, the government continues to supress the media using the laws prohibiting defamation of the President, and for fear of being arrested, journalists have resorted to self-censorship. Editors continue to be bullied with laws contained in legislation such as the Penal Code.

 

  • Mozambican journalist Ericino de Salema was recently kidnapped and savagely beaten by two armed men who seized him outside the National Union of journalists (SNJ) and was left for dead. The authorities continue to use restrictive laws to censor and arrest journalists.

 

  • In Namibia, SAEF calls on the Namibia Central Intelligence Services (NCIS) to withdraw its court action against The Patriot newspaper and its editor Mathias Haufiku. It is worrisome that the government continues to use old apartheid draconian laws, such as the 1982 Protection of Information Act to censor and silence the media.

 

  • Swaziland saw the revival of two weekly newspapers and new entrants into the print sector, increasing the number of newspapers to nine and magazines to three. But in as much as they were positive developments, there were also setbacks.

 

The editor of Independent News published an inflammatory commentary, seen to be stirring up hatred against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community. He called for the ‘hanging’ of the LGBTI members on cultural and moral grounds.

 

The managing editor of Swaziland Shopping published serious allegations of corruption among editors themselves. He alleged that a businessman had captured the editors. He also accused the current crop of journalists of revealing their sources in exchange for bribes. The Swaziland Editors’ Forum (SEF) tried to investigate the damaging allegations published by one of their members. However, their efforts were futile because the member refused to cooperate.

In commemorating this day, SAEF is therefore, calling on southern African governments and political players to respect the work of journalists, whether they are from public or private media, so that they can exercise their duties freely without fear of being arrested or harassed.

Against this background, governments and political players are reminded that freedom of the media is essential not just to protect the rights of journalists but to protect the rights of the people to have the information they need.

It is sad to note that most privately owned media houses in the SADC region are facing viability challenges due to the economic environment, and if the status does not improve, it might prevent millions of people from accessing alternative media platforms to express themselves or be heard.

SAEF will continue to engage SADC, the African Union and other regional and global bodies to find solutions to challenges faced by the media in the region.

 

Willie Mponda

SAEF Chairperson

Mobile: +263 712 718 043

SANEF Celebrates World Press Freedom Day

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The South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) stands in solidarity with journalists from around the world to celebrate World Press Freedom Day. On this day journalists and journalist organisations celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom. We evaluate the status of press freedom internationally and in our countries, regions and continents and we recommit to defending journalists from attacks on their independence. We also pay tribute to the journalists who have lost their lives in the exercise of their profession.

In this context SANEF joins journalists from around the world to condemn the deadly attack on journalists and civilians in Kabul, Afghanistan on Monday the 30th of April. Ten journalists including an AFP photographer were killed. This was the deadliest day for the country’s media since 2001. SANEF notes that one of the most distressing aspects of this tragedy was that the bomber disguised himself as a journalist and then detonated himself in the crowd. In terms of the African continent, SANEF condemns the ongoing incarceration, harassment and intimidation of journalists.

Back home, however, SANEF celebrates South Africa’s hard-won media and press freedom rights. South Africa’s 1996 Constitution protects the freedom of expression and access to information. But we note that there is still much work to be done. Apartheid-era legislation still remains on our statute books and a number of post-apartheid acts and bills are problematic these include, but are not limited to, the Protection of Critical Infrastructure Bill, the Film and Publications Amendment Bill and the Broadcasting Amendment Bill.

Also, SANEF notes that there have been a number of attacks of journalists in South Africa over the last few years. These have included attacks from the Black First Land First movement in 2017. In 2018 a Netwerk 24 journalist laid an assault charge when he was attacked by Economic Freedom Fighters, Deputy President, Floyd Shivambu in the Parliamentary precinct. Also, SANEF condemned the raid on the house of award-winning investigative journalist and writer, Jacques Pauw by the terrorist-fighting “Crimes Against the State” unit of the Hawks. Another worrying trend we have noted and condemned is the harassment of journalists on community newspapers. For instance, two journalists from the Lowvelder Newspaper were removed by private security from a magistrate’s court in Mpumalanga.

On the positive side however SANEF celebrates the fact that South Africa now ranks 28 in the Word Press Freedom Index. This is an increase of three points from our 2017 World Press Freedom ratings.

Contact details:

  • Mahlatse Mahlase – SANEF Chairperson 083 339 2852
  • Sam Mkokeli – SANEF Media Freedom Sub-Committee Chairperson 082 084 2051
  • Kate Skinner – SANEF Executive Director 082 926 6404