African Journalists Discuss World Press Freedom Day

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RAP 21, Paris
World Press Freedom Day is celebrated on 3 May. It is a day to honor the individual journalists who have risked their lives in helping vindicate the right to a free press in their country. It is a day to celebrate progress made in securing recognition to the right to a free press, which is inextricably connected with other rights such as free speech and democratic governance. It is also a day to galvanize civil society to more actively form coalitions and apply needed pressure to support reform.

World Press Freedom Day is an especially important day in Africa inasmuch as the continent is still fighting to secure and strengthen freedom of the press. Journalists working in inimical climates continue to be repressed, harassed, tortured, and even killed. And unjust and ambiguous laws have been promulgated in many countries that hinder the development of a professional and representative press.

RAP 21 has taken the occasion of World Press Freedom Day to interview journalists and editors throughout the continent on issues facing the African press today in this special edition newsletter.

All over the world there are a multitude of causes that are celebrated and honored on different days throughout the year. In Africa World Press Freedom Day (on 3 May) is one that carries an exceptional weight.

Prominent journalists from across the continent from South Africa to Tunisia spoke to RAP 21 on what this day signifies in their countries.

Journalist Clifford Derrick from Kenya, now exiled in South Africa, spoke of the need to refocus 3 May into a new vein that accounts more for the journalists working in oft-brutal conditions. Omar Belhouchet, an eminent publisher from Algeria, discussed widening the fight for press freedom to be all-inclusive in the country. South African media veteran Janine Lazarus talked about the incongruent between law and practice. Zimbabwean journalist Geoffrey Nyarota, now based in the United States, examined the possibilities for change. Tunisian journalist and freedom of expression advocate Sihem Bensedrine emphasized the importance to take stock on 3 May and define means to achieve the right to a free press.

Reminiscing on their journalistic careers in their countries, all five journalists expressed the array feelings May 3rd evokes, from anticipation to anger and pride to fear.
“As a journalist, I attach enormous significance to World Press Freedom Day. The more awareness that is generated about journalists being tossed into prison for daring to publish something, the more informed the public will be,” said Lazarus.

Derrick also sees the need to impel others in civil society, media, and government, to allow for both unbiased and complete coverage of events and exposure of what happens within the media industry everyday. Derrick looks to the future when journalists will hopefully be able to celebrate World Press Freedom Day.

Until then he said, “People are killed on a daily basis in Somalia, Ethiopia, and Sudan and no one seems to speak on their behalf. In Zimbabwe, journalists are now branded either opposition supporters or agents of Western countries. Many of them have been brutally beaten and a number of them died mysteriously last year…it is a sad moment and day to African journalists as we celebrate World Press Freedom Day.”

“World Press Freedom Day is an occasion to review the reality of this right and to assess whether and how it is protected. It is an important moment to take stock and see where we stand and how we can achieve our objectives,” stressed Bensedrine.

Concurrently this day holds more optimism in Africa insofar as it also brings together all the efforts that have led to the impetus for reform. Belchouchet, the 1994 laureate of the WAN Golden Pen of Freedom, holds this day to be very topical in Africa: “World Press Freedom Day is essential for countries where press freedom is regularly jeopardised and many of those countries unfortunately are in Africa.” He also understands that a free press is not only for the journalists working in the field—it is a public good, something that serves the entirety of a society.

“That day should no longer be solely about journalists, but a day of action to achieve the right to press freedom of all citizens and the overall society,” he continued.
Concurrently, Nyarota believes “Press Freedom Day is an occasion on which those in the media should rededicate themselves to the professional challenges of keeping the citizens of their respective countries well and adequately informed on the various issues that are of importance and relevance to their lives. It is a day on which both media personnel and organizations should commit themselves again to fighting for press freedom.”

All of the journalists spoken to work out of different environments that display varying threats to open discussion and coverage. Though, underlining all of their opinions of 3 May it can be concurred that this day serves to reaffirm this right and to push Africa into the vanguard of upholding the fundamental right of a free press.

In Tunisia, there is no freedom of expression, according to Bensedrine. “No independent newspaper has been authorized under Ben Ali, whereas his associates receive all necessary licenses to launch complacent newspapers or television stations,” she argues, adding that the online independent magazine Kalima, which is blocked in Tunisia, has faced five consecutive denials for registration since 1999. “Free speech scares the authorities and the freedom of expression situation in Tunisia keeps worsening year after year. Smear campaigns are led against those who stand for that fundamental right.”
In Algeria, Belchouchet described the status of press freedom as precarious.

Press freedom is guaranteed in the constitution, though it is a mere façade inasmuch as “authorities keep resorting to a highly repressive penal code to deal with defamation cases,” said Belchouchet.
“Over the past months, judges have multiplied prison sentences for journalists, in an ill-considered manner,” he said. This clampdown has extended to the newsroom of El Watan, the newspaper Belchouchet publishes.

On 4 March an appeal court ruling upheld a two-month prison sentence for defamation against Belchouchet and journalist Chawki Amari. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s May 2006 decision to pardon journalists sentenced to prison seemingly removes the imminence of imprisonment for Belchouchet and his ilk facing similar charges. However, the threat remains palpable without actual reform of the laws.

“The judiciary is used by the authorities to stop journalists from reporting the Algerian people’s anger over unemployment, purchasing power and over the lack of transparency and visibility of the political life. Such repression is not specific to journalists, as independent unions and other social forces are also repressed,” he said.

In South Africa the independent press continues to sway between good legislation and towering politics. “We were all upbeat after our first democratic elections in 1994 as up until then, the media had to operate under draconian legislation, including blanket censorship bans. Unfortunately though, I can’t say that we now have what I would call press freedom in our country.” Lazarus is well aware of the infamous media paradox common across Africa: a purported free media is upheld only when quiet.

“Whenever the media criticizes the ruling party, there is always a backlash of some sort in one or other newspapers. The African National Congress blatantly controls our state-controlled broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation, just as it was controlled by the old Nationalist Party pre 1994,” she continued. “In fact, after 24 years of working in mainstream journalism, I’m not convinced that press freedom actually exists,” said Lazarus.

Nyarota, who left his home country fearing his life, still serves his country, now with near boundless freedom, with his online publication, The Zimbabwe Times. His publication has become even more imperative as his country is trapped between a relentless regime hanging on to its last limb of control and a growing movement of people ready to lead the country into a new era.

The press in Zimbabwe explained Nyarota, is ensnared by government tactics that override given Zimbabwean rights. “Zimbabweans have free access to information that is packaged by journalists seeking to protect or promote government interests,” he said.
“The government of President Robert Mugabe has launched a relentless campaign of repression of the media. It has enacted draconian legislation such as the controversial Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), which renders the practice of journalism and the publishing of independent newspapers hazardous occupations. The Broadcasting Act precludes independent interests from establishing broadcasting operations,” Nyarota said.

Similar problems to Zimbabwe have also been revealed in Kenya, in part to the post-election violence late last December. Derrick argues that there is no press freedom in the country and that its status has remained the same or has become even worse in President Kibaki’s regime. “There is a systematic and clandestine clampdown on critical individual journalists who are not known to the public. They are haunted and killed discreetly for providing vital information to media organizations,” Derrick said.

Derrick urges the media to pay more attention to the crimes committed against them. “A journalist may be killed silently or be forced to resign from his work but no media outlet will dare report this to the public,” he said.

Belchouchet has, perhaps a different outlook. “The possibilities for freedom of expression that still exist in Algeria were created by journalists and publishers who fought hard for that space.” In his opinion, it is the authorities that narrow that space with deploying all tactics available from denying advertisements to judicial harassment.

This year on World Press Freedom Day the role of the media during elections is an especially relevant issue to examine in Africa. Nyarota has been reporting from the US on the still proceeding elections in Zimbabwe; Derrick went back to Kenya last December to avoid succumbing to self-censorship and weak investigations; Belchouchet is preparing for next year’s election in Algeria; Bensedrine is calling for an end to severe restrictions on media that prevent any fair elections; and Lazarus has watched South Africa along with other African countries advance and slump at the polls for many years now.

Derrick suggested that the private media should declare their preferred candidates and provide valid reasons on their choice. “This will help readers know the stands of different media organizations and this will help the public make informed choices on which media they want to consume.” Before this can happen though, Derrick said, “there should be a law on the concentrated ownership of the media. This will provide for the pluralism of opinions—because, should one person dominate the ownership of the media…it will not be conducive for a deliberative democracy and free public debate.”

Belchouchet spoke of the increase of pressure during election times: “It is possible to resist pressure by organizing the profession in an autonomous manner. Newspaper publishers must as well aim at economic efficiency and create the conditions for economic and financial independence. It can be long-term prospect, but it is indispensable to protect journalists’ freedom to investigate and comment.”

Lazarus believes election pressures on the media can be suppressed “by forbidding state-controlled agencies to dictate what is or isn’t allowed to be published.” But with her experience throughout the continent she asks, “Will this happen in Africa? I very much doubt it after having worked in 13 countries across the continent.”

“The creation of media diversity and viability is the most effective way of ensuring that media organizations are truly independent of outside pressure or influence,” said Nyarota. This has not been grasped in Zimbabwe yet where “the government has deliberately weakened the media through the appointment of unqualified or poorly trained, and therefore acquiescent personnel, to positions of influence in its media organizations,” said Nyarota.

However, The Zimbabwe Times along with other various internet-based newspapers and radio stations, operating outside of the country, attest that there are alternatives. World Press Freedom Day can be seen as an opportunity to disseminate such possibilities.
Nyarota believes this day should serve as “a day of both review of progress made and for mapping out future strategies. There are two strategies to make press freedom a reality. One is the comprehensive and meaningful training of personnel. The other involves institutional support in an area of enterprise where achievement of self-sustainability is often rendered impossible by government intervention.”

“The press must publicize 3 May to raise citizens’ awareness and responsibility. It is comforting to see throughout Algeria more and more initiatives from the civil society and human rights groups that aim at making 3 May an occasion to defend press freedom,” Belchouchet said.

Derrick sees World Press Freedom as a time to call for better working conditions in the industry as well to “ensure that no government interfers with the journalists’ duties and obligations to the public.”

Uniting all opinions, Nyarota said “Press Freedom Day should not degenerate into a day of sloganeering, with little evidence of comprehensive initiatives to carry the momentum of campaigns from one Press Freedom Day to the next.”

The African Press Network for the 21st Century (RAP 21) is a pan-African media network. It was launched by the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) together with the Union of Publishers in Central Africa (UEPAC). This email-based network gives the possibility to dialogue and exchange of ideas and information among media professionals all over Africa. The members consist of newspapers, media associations, newspaper executives, journalists and freelancers.

Editor @ May 1, 2008