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Bush Radio 89.5 fm is the Mother of Community Radio in Africa. Discover our African radio list a good list of African radios on the Net. Enjoy the joyfull music and the news The number of journalists imprisoned and killed worldwide increased for the second straight year in 2006. Ninety journalists were killed, surpassing the 72 killed in 2004, and 58 in 2005. There were nearly 140 in prison, compared with 125 in 2005. |
from The East African (Nairobi) found at allafrica.com COLUMN January 23, 2007 by Charles Onyango-Obbo Nairobi
Ethiopia and Eritrea kept their prized places among the top four jailers of journalists in the world, with China running away with the biscuit.
Regionally, the picture is mixed. According to the 2006 Global Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders, Tanzania is the region's best-rated country for press freedom. It is in 88th position. Uganda dropped from 80th position to 116th on the index. Kenya is in the 118th position among the 168 countries evaluated.
In Africa, just like with poverty levels, HIV/Aids and other measures of diseases and suffering, these rankings tell you little about real differences among countries. But they are important for the story they tell about trends.
By this measure, Uganda is the most worrying case because this is the lowest position it has occupied since the Index was launched about five years ago, and considering how sharp the decline is.
There are two contradictions about the shrinkage of press freedom in Africa. The first is that a new study by the Africa Media Development Initiative (an offshoot of the now almost forgotten Blair Commission on Africa) reports that there has been tremendous media growth on the continent (especially of private FM stations).
The second is that more Africans live in "democratic conditions" than ever before. This, again, might not mean much beyond the fact that we vote in elections that governments, in the end, still steal. But at least more of us are voting, and have a wider choice of bad candidates to pick from.
However, while the media is growing everywhere in Africa, serious journalism isn't. Many of the stars of the FM wave are not hardnosed muckrakers trying to catch the bad guys. They are musicians, comedians, pastors, even witchdoctors with the personality for radio. Many are content to let callers "vent" their emotions, then take a break every so often for a two-minute news "bulletin."
That, it seems, is enough. That is more than enough time to report that there has been a Cabinet reshuffle, and that the Mombasa road that has been washed away by rains so Uganda and Rwanda-bound goods will be delayed.
The people no longer seem terribly interested to know about the "deeper issues". Definitely, they aren't listening by the time you mention that the unseasonable rains that have swept away the roads have to do with a hole in something called the ozone layer.
This is a general malaise that seems to taken root in Africa from the end of 2002. The election in Kenya in December 2002 was probably the last time there was any movement that shifted the sands of African politics in a way that resulted in noticeable improvement.
Last year's elections in the Congo were important, yes, but mostly as a coming-out party for the country. Since 2003, hardly any African country has taken big steps towards political reforms. Improvements continue in the economic area in several countries, but politically there is either stagnation or rollbacks everywhere.
The shabby state of press freedom is, therefore, a symptom of the democratic dead end Africa seems to have hit again. It's also a sign of how much the African media itself might have squandered its credibility as it struggled to find a new role after the heady 1990s and the falling away of many old-style dictatorships.
In the end, as in the bad 1970s and 1980s, most governments are once again unafraid to crack down, because they will not pay any political cost.
Charles Onyango-Obbo is Nation Media Group's managing editor for convergence and new products.
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