Twenty years after the Windhoek Declaration on press freedom

dia have survived in a difficult environment,
with repeated sustainability
problems and <strong>the</strong>re-fore a lack
of independence towards political
and economic powers, or towards
foreign aid.
If media outlets <strong>the</strong>mselves are
fragile, professional journalism is
constantly challenged. This might
not sound different from what journalists
all over <strong>the</strong> world are faced
with – except that <strong>the</strong> consequences
might be higher in Africa.
In <strong>the</strong> past 20 <strong>years</strong>, in conflictridden
African countries, hundreds
of journalists have been killed,
arrested, assaulted or jailed. The
fact that <strong>the</strong>se abuses were not
always committed on journalists
who respected professional ethics
and resisted political pressure, but
sometimes on highly politicised and
corrupt professionals, indicates that
<strong>the</strong> issue of press freedom remains
complex and has to be handled with
care.
That is probably why <strong>the</strong> issue of
regulation and self-regulation has
been constantly debated by <strong>the</strong>
media sector stakeholders. What
<strong>the</strong> media have learnt from those
two decades is that <strong>the</strong>y have to
keep fighting for press freedom but
also for a democratically ‘regulated’
press freedom and for independent
mechanisms to insure <strong>the</strong> media’s
responsibility.
148 | Media in Africa - 2011
A co-opted media can
provoke chaos ra<strong>the</strong>r
than freedom
By Dr Ibrahim Saleh
Dr Ibrahim Saleh is a convener
of political communication at
<strong>the</strong> University of Cape Town,
South Africa. A Fulbright scholar,
he also chairs <strong>the</strong> journalism
research and education section
in <strong>the</strong> International Association
for Media and Communication
Research (IAMCR), and is a
member of <strong>the</strong> World Journalism
Education Council (WJEC).
Freedom is about inclusion and exclusion,
about access to information
and about public deliberation. However,
<strong>the</strong> situation in many African
countries remains about <strong>the</strong> privileges
that go with inclusion and <strong>the</strong>
penalties that accompany exclusion.
We cannot disregard <strong>the</strong> notion of
“identity crisis” to help understand
and identify what unresolved issues/
conflicts have led to <strong>the</strong> current
behaviour in many parts of North
Africa and beyond.
Ethnic, racial and religious identities
provide clear lines to determine
who will be included and who
will be excluded. Since <strong>the</strong> lines
appear unalterable, being in and
being out may quickly come to look
permanent.
The streets in Africa seldom empower
<strong>the</strong> expression of public
opinion and collective sentiments.
From Cape Town to Cairo, freedom is
threatened as a result of brute force
expressed in riots and mob violence.
And regardless of <strong>the</strong> geopolitical