Twenty years after the Windhoek Declaration on press freedom

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in corruption. The international community is increasingly tuned in to <strong>the</strong> importance of journalism as a way to guarantee transparency in business, politics and development aid distribution. The main reason for optimism is <strong>the</strong> strength of <strong>the</strong> journalists who see corruption as one facet of <strong>the</strong> news that must be reported as it happens, every day. Despite a lack of political will in many countries to seriously tackle corruption, and despite <strong>the</strong> prosecutions, attacks and harassment of media and reporters, <strong>the</strong>re are still journalists willing to dig deeper and reveal <strong>the</strong> truth. Before his untimely death earlier this year in a car accident, Cameroonian journalist Pius Njawe, who had been arrested 126 times and imprisoned three times, said: “A word can be more powerful that a weapon and I believe that with <strong>the</strong> word … we can build a better world and make happier people. So, why give up while duty still calls? No one will silence me, except The Lord, before I achieve what I consider as a mission in my native country, in Africa and, why not, in <strong>the</strong> world.” Section 1: Freedom Putting more emphasis on policy and pluralism By Jane Duncan Professor Jane Duncan is Highway Africa Chair of Information Society, at <strong>the</strong> School of Journalism and Media Studies, Rhodes University, South Africa. She was formerly <strong>the</strong> executive director of <strong>the</strong> Freedom of Expression Institute in Johannesburg. Since 1991, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Windhoek</strong> <strong>Declaration</strong> has become <strong>the</strong> yardstick to measure transformation of <strong>the</strong> African press from a state-controlled to an independent sector. <strong>Twenty</strong> <strong>years</strong> on, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Declaration</strong> remains relevant, in <strong>the</strong> light of set-backs over <strong>the</strong> past decade. The moral of <strong>the</strong> story is that unless <strong>the</strong> media pull out all <strong>the</strong> stops to secure conditions for media freedom in times of ‘peace’ between governments and <strong>the</strong> media, <strong>the</strong>y may find <strong>the</strong>mselves with very little leverage if hostilities break out between <strong>the</strong> two parties. The media must not simply trust government’s promises that <strong>the</strong>y will maintain media freedom; <strong>the</strong>y must ensure that policies and structures are put in place to guarantee media freedom going into <strong>the</strong> future. Where constitutional reform is possible, <strong>the</strong>n freedom of expression and access to information should be guaranteed as stand-alone rights, with media freedom being given special emphasis. These constitutional rights should be codified into legislation, and existing censorship legislation should be Media in Africa - 2011 | 57
epealed or reformed. However, policy should precede legislative reforms, o<strong>the</strong>rwise changes will be made in a policy vacuum. Policies should spell out <strong>the</strong> broad vision not just for <strong>the</strong> media, but for communications transformation as a whole. O<strong>the</strong>rwise, legacy media may land up being overtaken by events. All too often, governments do not spell out <strong>the</strong>ir own assumptions in reforming communications. This may be deliberate, for instance where a government wants to structure <strong>the</strong> landscape by stealth — in ways that may benefit government officials or private businesses linked to government. But a government may also simply lack policy capacity. Civil society organisations have been relatively effective in spelling out <strong>the</strong> tasks to be undertaken to transform <strong>the</strong> media from a state-controlled to an independent sector. But <strong>the</strong>re has been too little serious work on how government communications should be transformed. A key principle for civil society is that government communications should facilitate communication and interaction between government and citizens in a dialogic manner, ra<strong>the</strong>r than talking to citizens and telling <strong>the</strong>m what to think. The former is more appropriate to a democracy that seeks to encourage citizenship. But all too often, governments want subjects, not citizens — <strong>the</strong> former are less likely to challenge abuses of power than <strong>the</strong> latter. This is why many African countries still have Ministries of Information. Ideally <strong>the</strong>se should be replaced with Ministries of Communication. The two differ (or should differ). Communications Ministries are meant to facilitate access to communications through <strong>the</strong> development of national policy on issues like universal access to communications networks, diverse ownership of communications 58 | Media in Africa - 2011 systems, promotion of local content and <strong>the</strong> like. “But all too often, governments want subjects, not citizens — <strong>the</strong> former are less likely to challenge abuses of power than <strong>the</strong> latter.” On <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r hand, Ministries of Information tend to focus on controlling <strong>the</strong> content of communications to achieve particular national objectives. In practice, <strong>the</strong>y tend to become tools for government, and more narrowly, for ruling party control of <strong>the</strong> media. The biggest guarantor of media independence, though, is pluralism, as citizens can <strong>the</strong>n access alternative sources of information if <strong>the</strong> state attempts to control information flow. But all too often governments are reluctant to implement positive measures to promote and safeguard pluralism. This means that as media markets open up, <strong>the</strong>y may land up being dominated by a few voices. Governments have also resisted transforming state broadcasters into public broadcasters and establishing independent regulators. These remain urgent tasks. But as recent events in Egypt and Tunisia have shown, if internet and mobile penetration is high, <strong>the</strong>n alternative communications networks can be set up. In <strong>the</strong> converged communications space, civil society must ensure that everyone has affordable access to <strong>the</strong> means of communication. That situation will <strong>the</strong>n undermine any government attempts to control information, as citizens can circulate information much more easily. The media, too, may be resistant to campaigns for media pluralism, as some may benefit from a concentrated media. Concentration may at times be necessary to guarantee <strong>the</strong> economies of scale and scope that are necessary to ensure survival. But it is far easier for governments to influence information flow in concentrated media markets, than it is in pluralistic ones. In <strong>the</strong> former, it may take just one governmentlinked buy-out of a key media house to gain control a big chunk of <strong>the</strong> media. So it is important that <strong>the</strong> media think beyond <strong>the</strong>ir own short term interests on <strong>the</strong> concentration question. Arguably, civil society has expended enormous energy thinking about and campaigning for <strong>the</strong> ‘independent’ part of <strong>the</strong> <strong>Windhoek</strong> <strong>Declaration</strong>, but not enough energy has gone into <strong>the</strong> ‘pluralistic’ part. Unless this lacuna is addressed, <strong>the</strong>n control-oriented governments may continue to outflank <strong>the</strong> media. Conditions must be created where government control of <strong>the</strong> media becomes impossible, and <strong>the</strong>se conditions are even more possible now than <strong>the</strong>y were 20 <strong>years</strong> ago. In spite of some setbacks in press freedom over <strong>the</strong> past decade, <strong>the</strong>re is cause to be optimistic.
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MEDIA IN AFRICA Twenty</str
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This work is licensed under <strong
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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
Page 16 and 17: and the results we
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Page 20 and 21: matters. Some people could, for ins
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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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Page 36 and 37: Studies; African Communication Rese
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Page 42 and 43: watchdogs. A profile of Ugandan jou
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Page 46 and 47: independent Namibia, set th
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Page 50 and 51: media that was independent of gover
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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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Post Windhoek, Mal
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What is one of the
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state explicitly that freedom of ex
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New questions for African public se
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individual countries and former col
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How African media, and journalism s
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Twenty years after the Windhoek Declaration on press freedom

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