Twenty years after the Windhoek Declaration on press freedom

eration that suddenly swept aside
as irrelevant <strong>the</strong> stale, state-owned
newspaper monopolies which had
been part of <strong>the</strong> arsenal of repression
by <strong>the</strong> one-party or military
tyrannies targeted by <strong>the</strong> movement
for democratisation.
Soon, following <strong>the</strong> newspaper resurgence,
appeared <strong>the</strong> even more
revolutionary entry onto <strong>the</strong> media
landscape: <strong>the</strong> emergence of independent
radio (and slightly later TV)
broadcasting. The liberalisation of
<strong>the</strong> airwaves, clearly imposed on <strong>the</strong>
governments by <strong>the</strong> mass democratic
movements and enthusiastic
and determined initiators and entrepreneurs,
put <strong>the</strong> last nail into
<strong>the</strong> coffin of state monopoly of <strong>the</strong>
media.
State monopoly and <strong>the</strong> silencing
of dissenting and differing voices
had generally produced, over <strong>the</strong>
<strong>years</strong>, minimal day-to-day attacks
on and violations of press freedom
and journalists’ rights. There was
no freedom to attack. It is almost
like <strong>the</strong> saying that <strong>the</strong>re is no
repression in <strong>the</strong> cemetery.
But <strong>the</strong> rampant invasion of newspapers
and radio stations onto <strong>the</strong>
previously closed social and political
landscape - suddenly releasing a cacophony
of long-silenced voices - in
turn provoked <strong>the</strong> innate repressive
adrenalin of <strong>the</strong> governments. Most
governments in <strong>the</strong> region were ei<strong>the</strong>r
<strong>the</strong> same old unreformed dictatorships,
or old military or one-party
regimes forced by <strong>the</strong> popular movements
and <strong>the</strong> demands of donor
governments to conduct hasty elections
and put on new hardly fitting
garbs of liberal multi-party constitutionalism.
In <strong>the</strong> 1990s to much of
<strong>the</strong> first decade of <strong>the</strong> 21st century,
not more than three countries in
West Africa could boast of genuinely
democratic regimes elected into office
on <strong>the</strong>ir parties’ own credentials
of democratic merit.
The ensuing spate of attacks on
142 | Media in Africa - 2011
“The excitement of a
new dawn of media
freedom, autonomy
and pluralism was
now turning into a
nightmare of fear,
torture and <strong>the</strong> threat
of death.”
journalists and media was enough
to suggest <strong>the</strong> imminent death of
<strong>the</strong> new, emerging media pluralism
in West Africa. The irate regimes
unleashed attacks through two
fronts. The first and regular method
involved <strong>the</strong> raw, crude, knee-jerk
attacks by security operatives and
o<strong>the</strong>r functionaries – targeting every
expression unpalatable to government
and officials, and at any real or
perceived media infraction. The new
media establishments, dominated by
un-trained, inexperienced novices
in <strong>the</strong> profession, provided plenty
of ammunition for attack by way of
<strong>the</strong>ir numerous errors and ethical
blunders resulting from <strong>the</strong> sheer
over-enthusiasm of <strong>the</strong> excited
newcomers. The second line of attack
by governments was to crank
up <strong>the</strong> firmly controlled judicial machinery
to unleash on <strong>the</strong> media <strong>the</strong>
repressive legislation still intact on
<strong>the</strong> statute books.
The governments operated in
environments without any, or with
negligible, traditions of independent
media operation, and a low culture
of tolerance for <strong>the</strong> expression
of contrasting viewpoints in <strong>the</strong>
public space. The new independent
voices of <strong>the</strong> young press and
radio stations came across to <strong>the</strong>se
authoritarian or even tyrannical
leaders as insolence, irritation,
personal attacks and subversion.
Governments’ responses were to
use <strong>the</strong> law to railroad journalists
into prison, to frighten o<strong>the</strong>rs into
self-censorship or submission or
to even drive o<strong>the</strong>rs into exile. In
addition, nearly everywhere, <strong>the</strong>
regimes passed new and additional
constricting legislation.
A new dimension in <strong>the</strong> attacks
on <strong>the</strong> media was introduced in
<strong>the</strong> civil-war-stricken countries of
Liberia, Sierra Leone and – to a lesser
extent – Guinea and Guinea-Bissau.
Warlords and governments battling
<strong>the</strong>m resorted to some of <strong>the</strong> most
heinous violence against <strong>the</strong> media
and journalists. Over <strong>the</strong> decade of
civil war in Liberia and Sierra Leone,
about 16 journalists were murdered
in each country, and several radio
stations and newspapers gutted by
arson.
The excitement of a new dawn of
media freedom, autonomy and
pluralism was now turning into a
nightmare of fear, torture and <strong>the</strong>
threat of death.
Inserted into this confusion of <strong>the</strong>
promise of and threats to freedom,
<strong>the</strong> MFWA’s first programme of intervention
was to establish a mechanism
for monitoring and publicising
attacks on media freedom and
violations of journalists’ rights.
The organisation set up a regionwide
network of correspondents
from each of <strong>the</strong> 15 Ecowas member
countries, as well as from Mauritania
which had by now left <strong>the</strong> regional
inter-state organisation. The aim
was to monitor violations on a
daily basis. Thus <strong>the</strong> press freedom
ALERT of <strong>the</strong> MFWA was born, and
continues to today.
In certain circumstances, such as
during <strong>the</strong> worst stages of <strong>the</strong> civil
wars in Liberia or <strong>the</strong> violent crises
in Guinea, <strong>the</strong> monitoring was
expanded to include violations of
o<strong>the</strong>r human rights. In later <strong>years</strong>,
<strong>the</strong> <strong>the</strong>me was expanded also to
include monitoring of violations