Twenty years after the Windhoek Declaration on press freedom

Journalists at work, interviewing Sombo Izetta Wesley, President of <strong>the</strong> Liberia
Football Association (LFA), on November 4, 2009. Wesley became <strong>the</strong> first
female president of <strong>the</strong> LFA in 2003, which also made her <strong>the</strong> first woman in <strong>the</strong>
world to head a football federation for FIFA. Photo by Ahmed Jallanzo, Africa
Media Online
duty on newsprint, while <strong>the</strong> Kenya
Times did not have to. 62 This kind of
situation is happily no longer widely
prevalent post-<strong>Windhoek</strong>. However,
in Botswana, one result of state enterprise
competition has been <strong>the</strong>
collapse of Tswana-language paper
Mokgosi, which could not survive in
<strong>the</strong> face of government pouring resources
into <strong>the</strong> state-owned Daily
News. 63
According to Bourgault: “Press
freedom in Africa will flower
only if new sources of finance can
be harnessed in a new economic
order, i.e., if <strong>the</strong> management
of capital can be wrested away
from <strong>the</strong> all-controlling powers of
centralized government on <strong>the</strong> one
hand and from foreign-dominated
government or from multinational
sources on <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r.” 64 Her remark
resonates particularly with <strong>the</strong> power
that governments and corporations
have through advertising. In <strong>the</strong>
post-1991 history of The Nation,
government advertising and tenders
have often gone to <strong>the</strong> state-owned
Kenya Times, even though at one
point <strong>the</strong> cost of doing so meant
<strong>the</strong> ads reaching 1000 readers for
Overview
78 cents vs 7 cents. 65 In Ghana
more recently, state-owned media
are reported to receive <strong>the</strong> bulk
of advertising support from <strong>the</strong>
public sector. 66 Some states have
gone as far as abusing public
resources in order to punish critical
papers. In 1989, when The Nation
was banned from reporting <strong>the</strong>
Kenyan parliament, a number of
parastatals and local governments
cancelled <strong>the</strong>ir advertising. In
2006, Kenyan police stormed <strong>the</strong>
offices of The Standard newspaper
and government followed up by
withdrawing advertising. In like
vein, state advertising in Namibia,
Botswana, Malawi, Lesotho and
South Africa has been misused as
a retaliatory tool against critical
coverage in certain newspapers. 67
Corporations have also sometimes
been bullies, even of major media
houses. At one point Bata Shoes
withdrew ads from The Nation
because <strong>the</strong> paper reported a
strike at its factory. Kenya Canners
cancelled a label-printing contract
<strong>after</strong> it was reported how <strong>the</strong>
company gained a monopoly of <strong>the</strong>
pineapple market. Firestone stopped
its adverts in <strong>the</strong> group <strong>after</strong> reports
about <strong>the</strong> difficulties of getting
foreign exchange and spare parts. 68
Fast forward to today, and it is
evident that much African media
steers clear of criticising cellphone
companies, given <strong>the</strong>ir extensive
advertising. On <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r hand, in
Uganda “it is almost commonplace
that every advertiser expects some
coverage”. 69
However, an even bigger problem
is when economies are too weak to
have advertising. The significance of
this is evident in Frère’s analysis of
<strong>the</strong> DRC: “In a context where <strong>the</strong>re
is virtually no advertising and <strong>the</strong>
little that exists is given according
to political sympathies, and where
<strong>the</strong> population is too poor to buy
a newspaper that costs as much
as several meals, only those media
Media in Africa - 2011 | 27