Twenty years after the Windhoek Declaration on press freedom

Circulation of newspapers in
South Sudan is a great challenge
due to infrastructural lag.
Though papers may reach city
readers timeously, not all <strong>the</strong>
o<strong>the</strong>r regions get <strong>the</strong> issue in
time. Also, in South Sudan today,
<strong>the</strong>re is only one privateowned
printing press belonging
to <strong>the</strong> Citizen newspaper, apart
from <strong>the</strong> state-owned Nile
Printing press which in recent
times has not been fully functional.
Much as <strong>the</strong> word spreads that
press freedom is a government
target to guarantee, much remains
to be put right, as is evident
in <strong>the</strong> delay in passing <strong>the</strong>
Media bill. This is an early indicator
of how <strong>the</strong> government is
uncomfortable with some sections
of <strong>the</strong> draft law. It calls for
more scrutiny of how <strong>the</strong> government
will keep its promise
of giving freedom to <strong>the</strong> press,
not to mention freedom of expression
for all citizens.
Things could improve if <strong>the</strong>
government gives equal attention
to both its political
mandate and its responsibility
to serve its citizens decently.
The 2010 elections passed with
few reports of post-election
violence, but coverage of some
violence led to <strong>the</strong> arrest and
detention of a journalist for at
least a week, not to mention
unreported harassments.
There needs to be improved
understanding by people in
<strong>the</strong> government about <strong>the</strong>
role of media in developing an
active citizenry, and to keep to
growing this new country into
a mature democracy.
Section 2: Pluralism
Commercialised media
can be a blessing
By Reg Rumney
Reg Rumney is director of <strong>the</strong> Centre
for Economics Journalism at <strong>the</strong>
School of Journalism and Media
Studies, Rhodes University. He is a
former Economics Editor of SABC
News, and before that he was Business
Editor of <strong>the</strong> Mail & Guardian. His
writing is online at www.ceja.co.za
Media alarmists like US academic
Robert McChesney take a dim
view of commercial media and
private ownership. For <strong>the</strong>m, “Big
Media” is gobbling up competition,
shutting out opposing views and
turning a deaf ear to <strong>the</strong> poor and
marginalised.
The o<strong>the</strong>r side of this coin is an
equally simplistic view which assumes
that greater competition in
<strong>the</strong> media translates into greater
diversity. South Africa’s ruling ANC,
in a document tabled at its National
General Council in September 2010,
follows this line of thinking:
“Free, independent and pluralistic
media can only be achieved through
not only many media products but
by <strong>the</strong> diversity of ownership and
control of media.”
While everyone agrees that monopolies
are unequivocally bad, <strong>the</strong>
diversity of ownership in a market
economy does not necessarily guarantee
a diversity of opinion – but
nor does concentrated ownership
automatically mean homogenous
content.
When <strong>the</strong>re is much competition
among newspapers or broadcasters,
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