Twenty years after the Windhoek Declaration on press freedom

The importance of editorial
independence in Africa
By Mathatha Tsedu
Mathatha Tsedu is Project Director:
Press Freedom Commission (SA)
having served as Head of <strong>the</strong> Media24
Journalism Academy, Johannesburg,
South Africa. He is a former editor of
City Press and is also a founder of The
African Editors’ Forum.
Wikipedia defines editorial independence
as “<strong>the</strong> freedom of editors
to make decisions without interference
from <strong>the</strong> owners of a publication”.
It fur<strong>the</strong>r states that “independence
is tested, for instance, if
a newspaper runs articles that may
be unpopular with its advertising
customers.”
Freedom to make decisions, as contemplated
in this definition would
encompass an editor making incontestable
decisions about not publishing
a story at all, or publishing
part or whole of a story, when
such publication happens, and what
changes must be made for publication
to happen.
So owners, whe<strong>the</strong>r state or private
individuals, are barred in <strong>the</strong> environment
where editorial independence
exists from having any say.
It is <strong>the</strong> “Chinese wall” that editorial
people speak of, and it can vary
from total bans on management to
walk through <strong>the</strong> editorial workspace,
through to where <strong>the</strong>y sit
side by side but with management
barred from interfering in any way
Section 3: Independence
with editorial.
Prakash Desai, <strong>the</strong> MD of one of
<strong>the</strong> major media houses in South
Africa, Avusa, says he takes editorial
independence so seriously that
he has banned management from
<strong>the</strong> editorial floor. On <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r
hand, Media24’s City Press has just
amalgamated <strong>the</strong> spaces for its
management and editorial, with <strong>the</strong>
manager and editor-in-chief being
separated by a wall, and <strong>the</strong> marketing
staff sitting side by side with
journalists.
Across <strong>the</strong> continent, editorial
independence sometimes becomes
a mirage. In situations where an
institution such as <strong>the</strong> Kenya
Broadcasting Corporation (KBC)
leads each bulletin every evening
with whatever <strong>the</strong> president may
have been doing that day, what
independence does <strong>the</strong> editorin-chief
of KBC really have about
determining <strong>the</strong> line-up?
However at Nation Media, it is clear
that editors have clear powers to
edit <strong>the</strong>ir publications and that <strong>the</strong>y
have published major exposes that
affected political figures seen as
aligned to <strong>the</strong> owners.
But even <strong>the</strong>se two options are
not <strong>the</strong> case everywhere. In many
countries, private publications and
even radio stations, are owner-run
and edited. In situations where
Diallo Souleymane as <strong>the</strong> owner
Guinea Conakry’s biggest weekly
paper, Le Lynx, is also its editorin-chief,
how do you even start
speaking of independence from
owners?
Or with The Crocodile newspaper
in Togo under Pedro Amuzun or
<strong>the</strong> (now defunct) Chronicle in
Malawi under Rob Jamieson? These
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