Twenty years after the Windhoek Declaration on press freedom

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Studies; African Communication Research; Journal of African Media Studies). A recent initiative by <strong>the</strong> African Union and <strong>the</strong> European Union to support a portal on information about African media has been agreed on and <strong>the</strong> Africa Media Inititiative NGO is building it. There remains a shortage of books and textbooks on African journalism, but some innovatory items exist such as “Secrets of online and multimedia journalism” by Mudathir Ganiyu and Qasim Akinreti, which was published in 2010 in Ibadan, Nigeria. Also adding to <strong>the</strong> stock of knowledge about African journalism, <strong>the</strong>re have been some studies into <strong>the</strong> specific areas stated by <strong>Windhoek</strong>. One is into economic barriers (such as by <strong>the</strong> Sol Plaatje Institute for Media Leadership). 106 Ano<strong>the</strong>r is into <strong>the</strong> state of press freedom in African countries (such as by UNESCO). 107 However, it is hard to conceive of extensive knowledge about African media in <strong>the</strong> absence of rights and access to information. Access to information is thus not just relevant to journalists’ performance in informing <strong>the</strong>ir audiences, but also to knowledge that can feed into shaping <strong>the</strong> character and contours of <strong>the</strong> media itself. As blogger Steve Song points out, regulators could do a lot more to require cellphone companies (and one can add, broadcasters as well) to disclose more data that could help us understand <strong>the</strong> changing electronic communications environment. In conclusion, we know more today than we did in 1991 about journalism in Africa. Yet <strong>the</strong>re is still a need for much more knowledge generation and dissemination about African practitioners and institutions. 8. Assessment and new issues ahead 8.1 The view over 20 <strong>years</strong> is good; not so for <strong>the</strong> last decade Ideal standards for context, capital, capacity and knowledge all remain very relevant for African journalism two decades <strong>after</strong> <strong>Windhoek</strong>. Configured to enable optimum performance, <strong>the</strong>y represent an integrated set of standards against which progress can be assessed. As this report demonstrates, <strong>the</strong>y arise directly from <strong>the</strong> <strong>Windhoek</strong> <strong>Declaration</strong> and its successor frameworks, and <strong>the</strong>re have been many advances towards achieving <strong>the</strong>m since 1991. The caveat is that overall progress is not only insufficient, but much has been reversed in <strong>the</strong> past decade. While journalism is still in a better place than it was 20 <strong>years</strong> back, a worrying decline in <strong>the</strong> fundamental area of context has been taking place when <strong>the</strong> entirety is analysed. This assessment derives from wideranging evidence that is reflected in <strong>the</strong> holistic annual scores of Freedom House. Although this NGO is substantially funded by <strong>the</strong> US government, its views are not particularly skewed towards a US model of media freedom. 108 Thus, its latest media freedom index is based on an assessment of three areas which are quantified to contribute up to 100 points: • The legal environment (which contributes 30 percent of <strong>the</strong> total), • The political environment (which is more important than <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r two, making for 40 percent of <strong>the</strong> whole assessment), and • The economic environment (30 percent). The points that a country scores are taken as penalties, meaning that a country with 100 points is at <strong>the</strong> Overview extreme of no press freedom, while one at zero would be perfect press freedom. Within <strong>the</strong> three Freedom House areas of focus, different indicators count for different amounts of penalty points. For example, if <strong>the</strong>re are not effective freedom of information laws, a country incurs a maximum of two penalty points, but <strong>the</strong> non-existence of effective constitutional provisions to protect press freedom can understandably attract up to six negative points. Government ownership and control that influences diversity of views can also reach up to six negatives. The highest penalty is where journalists or media outlets are subject to extra-legal intimidation or physical violence, with <strong>the</strong> ceiling here commendably established as high as 10 points. A country with many penalty points (60-100) is categorised as Not Free; 0 to 30 places a state in <strong>the</strong> Free press group; while 31 to 60 constitutes <strong>the</strong> Partly Free press categorisation. Having regard to this methodology, <strong>the</strong>re should be no real concerns about drawing on <strong>the</strong> Freedom House data to reach conclusions about <strong>the</strong> state of press freedom around <strong>the</strong> continent since <strong>the</strong> <strong>Windhoek</strong> <strong>Declaration</strong>. That <strong>the</strong> Freedom House scores are also deemed fit to be utilised in <strong>the</strong> respected Mo Ibrahim African governance index also highlights <strong>the</strong> applicability and legitimacy of <strong>the</strong>se measures. Although detailed data is not available for <strong>the</strong> <strong>years</strong> before 2000, maps provided by Freedom House’s website yield <strong>the</strong> following count for 52 African countries as regards Press Freedom scores: 109 Media in Africa - 2011 | 35
1984 1989 1994 1999 Free media 0 1 2 4 Partly Free media 5 4 18 15 Not Free media 48 48 33 34 Seen in chart form, <strong>the</strong> overall improvement is evident: 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 However, over <strong>the</strong> second decade <strong>after</strong> 1991, <strong>the</strong>re is a reversal. Using <strong>the</strong> Freedom House data as recalibrated by <strong>the</strong> Mo Ibrahim foundation, 110 <strong>the</strong>re is a clear overall decline in press freedom between <strong>the</strong> <strong>years</strong> 2000 and 2009 for 52 African countries (excluding Somalia for which <strong>the</strong>re was not data). In <strong>the</strong> tables below, unlike Freedom House’s original measuring system, <strong>the</strong> higher scores signal better conditions, and <strong>the</strong> lower ones represent worse performance: 2000/1 2001/2 2002/3 2003/4 2004/5 2005/6 2006/7 2007/8 2008/9 2400 2200 2150 2100 1850 1700 1950 1500 1350 The visual trend in <strong>the</strong> overall ranking is very evident in <strong>the</strong> chart below: 3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 0 2000/1 36 | Media in Africa - 2011 1984 1989 1994 1999 2001/2 2002/3 2003/4 2004/5 2005/6 2006/7 2007/8 2008/9 Free Partly Free Not Free Series 1
Page 1 and 2: MEDIA IN AFRICA Twenty</str
Page 3 and 4: This work is licensed under <strong
Page 5 and 6: A small publisher gets technology t
Page 7 and 8: Foreword By Janis Karklins Janis Ka
Page 9 and 10: This is MISA By Kaitira Kandjii Kai
Page 12 and 13: overview overvie Overview
Page 14 and 15: What then have bee
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Page 20 and 21: matters. Some people could, for ins
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Page 24 and 25: 4.2.2 Criminal defamation A major o
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Page 28 and 29: Journalists at work, interviewing S
Page 30 and 31: 5.4 Tabloid success One area where
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Circulation of newspapers in South
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Misreading the mar
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African media have generally perfor
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Around Africa, the
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Community radio stations across Afr
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Fresh air-waves in Zambia By Mike D
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and consequently undermines media c
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How we started The Observer By Jame
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Audience research is essential By G
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to adopt applications beyond basic
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most popular stories, readers could
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INDEPENDEN INDEPENDENCE
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Challenges of organising journalist
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The importance of editorial indepen
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What it’s like in the</st
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The Zambian National Broadcasting C
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Post Windhoek, Mal
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What is one of the
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Journalist, African or both? And wh
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position, authorities keep on tryin
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state explicitly that freedom of ex
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witness sessions and attend public
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individual countries and former col
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Journalism to give Africans health
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Twenty years after the Windhoek Declaration on press freedom

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