Download - Media Institute of Southern Africa

State of the media in Southern Africa 2002
has undertaken the same editorial line as the existing weeklies.
The important media reports of the course of history in Angola in 2002 merit
and continue to merit special attention. It was the year in which on February
22, Dr. Jonas Malheiro Sidonio Savimbi, leader of the rebel movement UNITA,
was killed in combat, and soon after, on the April 04, the ceasefire was signed.
There was a wide range of news coverage and the dignified way the government
and the ruling party used in dealing with the disgrace befallen on the
political adversary set a public example.
In general the media took up a pluralistic posture beneficial to the official
positioning. For the first time in the history of the country since the second
Republic, the state and the media revealed maturity in the democratic culture
far from the usual arrogance and triumphals.
Excepting itself from this situation was the daily “Jornal de Angola”, the only
public and national periodical that chose to embrace a negative reporting on
certain political parties and organizations of civil society in a mercenary way.
However, the ceasefire between government and the rebel UNITA movement
on April 04 hypothetically raised the opportunity for UNITA party - of a warlike
tendency - to reorganise itself and embrace diversity in a peaceful way
which allows it to contribute positively and democratically to the consolidation
of the presupposed reconstruction and national reconciliation.
It is a positive fact that the relation between the media and government in that
period of time was peaceful, as was the position taken by the government
with the different media houses.
Thus, we can say that in 2002 we experienced the dawning of a new era for
the Angolans. It gave space for a new environment for the media, mainly the
private media, who strengthened its challenge by abolishing borders of fear
and of silence to reaffirm itself as a powerful and capable tool to contribute in
the changes often threatened by the powerful. Along this line, it is important
to mention the intensification of the public debate on outstanding issues related
to mal-governance and the Democratic State of Rights, the increase in
public denunciation and the increase in the circulation of information. It is
just to distinguish in this process the dynamism of Radio Ecclesia.
2002
As a consequence of this dynamism, new media facts were registered such as
the introduction of a phone-in program on the public debate in the Angolan
Public Television (which is the only television broadcaster in the country),
allowing the direct telephonic participation of citizens. The new data in this
program implemented by the Angolan Public Television, and pioneered by
24 So This Is Democracy?