Journalism News From Around Africa


Congoles Media Criticised For Biased Coverage Of Elections.

Joseph Kabila one of Mugabe’s friends won the controversial DRC elections recently winning 50.08 percent of the Congolese votes.
However Journalists En Danger says that as the D.R. Congo was organizing its first "free, democratic and transparent" general elections since the country's independence, a propaganda press committed to defending the political interests of its own candidates and demonizing its political adversaries, to shamefully exploiting macabre images, to inciting revenge and accusations and to justifying crime was born, cementing political tensions around it throughout the elections.

Worst of all, state-owned radio and television stations took part in the general decline, by siding almost exclusively with their respective candidates.

JED believes this war of attrition between privately-owned and state-owned media outlets and between the two main political forces set the stage for the armed clashes which occurred in Kinshasa between 20 and 22 August 2006, following the announcement of the results of the first round of presidential elections.
Since that time, and in the face of these dangerous breaches of ethics, the press has been placed under tight surveillance, not only by the government's own services but by the international community gathered in the country under CIAT (Comité International de l'Accompagnement de la Transition), who have stepped up their response in the form of thinly-veiled threats, warnings and sanctions - justified or not - against the media.

In its report, entitled: "Press freedom during the election period", JED also notes that the struggle against incitement to hatred and violence, while noble in principle, has allowed the media regulator (Haute autorité des médias - HAM) to exercise systematic censorship on the privately-owned media, thereby restricting the democratic debate so greatly needed during election period, while the state-owned media has been usurped by the ruling party.
The stigmatization of the press, combined with a generalized atmosphere of political intolerance, has resulted in an increase in acts of violence targeting journalists and certain media outlets. In one instance, a station in Kisanga, a suburb of Lubumbashi, was attacked by gunfire causing at least one victim.
In light of this first electoral experience, JED offers the following recommendations to the government and to the newly-elected Parliament.

- Transform the state-owned radio and television stations into real public media outlets, in the service of the public interest rather than those of the government or a specific political party. Such a change must not be limited to the adoption of slogans such as "The People's Broadcaster". To do this, current by-laws governing the RTNC must be reformed to include rules for the designation of a managing committee, whose neutrality vis-à-vis political factions and government would be guaranteed and whose finances would be protected from government manipulation. The managing committee would be accountable to parliamentary representatives for its editorial and financial management;

- Adopt access to information legislation that would oblige public representatives at all the levels of management to be answerable to the public through maximum disclosure of information. The law should include sanctions for anyone failing to cooperate;

- Put an end to the dualistic system of media regulation currently in place (HAM and the Ministry of Press and Information), particularly concerning public media outlets;

- In order to put an end to the violence that has targeted media outlets and professionals, carry out thorough investigations into the attacks against media outlets in Kisanga, the CCTV and CKTV fire, the murder of journalist Franck Ngyke and his wife, and the murder of journalist Bapuwa Mwamba. Publish the results of these investigations and bring all suspects before the courts.

Meanwhile South African Based website NEWS24 reports that
Despite improvements in press freedom authorities in Angola are not ensuring press freedom ahead of the country's first elections in more than 10 years, says New York-based Human Rights Watch . A law passed by parliament last February had removed some limitations on the media, but the legislation still failed to protect freedom of expression.
The group's Africa director Peter Takirambudde said: "Unless the Angolan government brings its press law up to international standards, freedom of the press in the election period will be compromised."
Elections, the first since 1992, were expected before the end of next year. A two-decade civil war in Angola ended in 2002.
Govt ends state monopoly on TV
The new law scrapped an old provision that barred journalists from defending themselves in court if they were accused of defamation by the country's president, currently Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who had ruled the southwest African country since 1979.
It also ended the state monopoly on television broadcasts and agency news and outlawed censorship.
However, Human Rights Watch said licensing procedures for private broadcasters were "overly bureaucratic and largely subject to the discretion of government rather than independent bodies".
It said the circulation of private newspapers was restricted by high taxation on newsprint, among other limitations.