SOUTHERN AFRICA: 2001 Difficult year for media

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

JOHANNESBURG, 24 December (IRIN) - The southern African media was among the
most challenged of any African media this year by heavy-handed governments,
regional analysts and senior journalists told IRIN.

"The media in this region have been challenged by local governments - many
of
which are struggling for legitimacy as in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Namibia - who
took issue with news reports and opinions in the enduring legacy of race
politics coupled with emerging problems such as HIV/AIDS and crime and
generally a bleak outlook as far as the economy goes," Yves Sorokobi, Africa
Programme Coordinator from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) told
IRIN.

Sorokobi said that "cornered" by the urgency of the challenges they faced,
governments in the region at times combined "a heavy-handed realpolitik
cynicism with a genuine concern for their countries' economic and political
stability in suppressing journalists rights in the national interest".

The independent media, in particular, over the past year have experienced
first hand, attempts by government to control their voice.

"There has been a growing intolerance against the independent media. In some
cases we have seen governments go so far as to withdraw advertising from
independent publications as was the case in Namibia earlier this year when
the government withdrew state advertising from The Namibian," Kaitira
Kandjii
regional information coordinator at the Windhoek-based Media Institute of
Southern Africa (MISA) told IRIN.

But analysts were unanimous that the most striking example of intolerance
was
Zimbabwe. Over the course of a difficult year, the country's only
independent
daily had its printing presses blown up, journalists were arrested and
beaten, and as government hostility reached new heights, six reporters
working for foreign newspapers were accused of being "terrorists".

The coming year may be even worse. Under a controversial Public Order and
Security Bill to be tabled in parliament in early 2002, a journalist will be
deemed to have committed an offence if they write a story that has already
been published by another media house without its permission, conceals,
falsifies or fabricates information, spreads rumours, falsehoods or causes
alarm and despondency under the guise of authentic reports and collects and
disseminate information on behalf of another person who is not part of the
mass media service. A two year jail term could await those who fall foul of
the law.

The Bill bans the media from writing on "information whose disclosure will
be
harmful to the law enforcement process and national security,
inter-governmental relations or negotiations, financial or economic
interests
of a public body, the government or country or information relating to
personal privacy". Journalists working in Zimbabwe will have to be
accredited
by the Media and Information Commission, which will be established by the
Bill.

"Zimbabwe is clearly the most troubled in the region. Foreign reporters have
effectively been hounded out of the country while local journalists are
under
a state of siege, mistaken by ZANU-PF (Zimbabwe's ruling party) to be the
political opposition and treated accordingly by a regime facing a major
identity crisis worsened by an unprecedented economic slump," Sorokobi said.

Kandjii told IRIN that apart from Zimbabwe, countries like Swaziland also
tried to introduce restrictive legislative measures on the media.

In Swaziland the independent weekly, The Guardian, won a major victory in
August when, after a four-month court battle, it had a banning order against
it overturned.

The Swazi government had banned the Guardian and the monthly Nation because
of their criticism of the absolute monarch, King Mswati III. The King also
attempted to impose restrictions when he signed Decree No 2 in June which
made it a seditious offence, punishable with a 10-year jail sentence, to
"impersonate, insult, ridicule or put into contempt the King, tribal
chiefs and state officials". The decree, however, was withdrawn in July
following an outcry from human rights groups and foreign governments.

Even in South Africa, often held up as a regional bastion of democracy, the
relationship between the government and the fourth estate was strained in
2001. "ANC (the ruling African National Congress) officials have repeatedly
lashed out at the 'white media establishment' accusing whites of undermining
a legitimate black government," Sorokobi said.

Senior journalists in the region argue that restrictions placed on the media
have impacted on access to information and the democratisation process.

"Not allowing journalists to do their job or restricting what they write and
dictating how they write impacts on the general public's access to
information," a senior South African-based journalists told IRIN. "Democracy
and the respect for democratic values cannot be entrenched in an environment
where the public are simply not getting enough information."

According to Kandjii: "Basically in the whole of southern Africa there is no
enabling environment with regards to access to information. There are some
constitutional guarantees, but nothing really with regards to access to
information. More needs to be done."

She told IRIN that another worrying trend to have emerged this year was
where
the printers, not just governments, have acted as censors.

In a statement on 13 December, MISA noted the case of the Lilongwe-based
printing company, Design Printers, which decided not to print an edition of
The Chronicle newspaper on the grounds that it contained "offensive
material".

"MISA is alarmed at the increasing attempts at censorship by printing
companies and publishers in the region. This incident in Malawi serves to
highlight similar incidents in Lesotho and now South Africa where Jonathan
Ball Publishers have taken a decision not to publish Robert Kirby's novel
Songs of the Cockroach on the basis that defamation action may be taken
against the publishers by the Democratic Alliance and other characters (or
their families) mentioned in the novel," MISA said in the statement.

"It is unfortunate that publishers and printing companies are, for economic
and political reasons, forced to dance to the tunes of governments and, in
so
doing, engage themselves in activities that serve to muzzle media freedom
and
freedom of expression," the media watchdog added.

[ENDS]

IRIN-SA
Tel: +27 11 880-4633
Fax: +27 11 447-5472
Email: [email protected]

[This Item is Delivered to the "Africa-English" Service of the UN's IRIN
humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views
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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2001

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