Journalists Trade On Dangerous Ground As African Governments Grow In tolerant to media

World over records have indicated that African governments are very hostile to journalists. In most of these countries, there are records of killings, tortures and total disappearances of journalists and other media workers. The media workers are not also speared from unnecessary attacks from those who are anti press, whose acts are being endorsed by their governments. These endorsements are not openly done but the fact that the laws will never take its courses is clear indications that those governments are behind the acts.

In this write up lets first of all take a close look at what prevails on the continent and then the piece will continue else where outside the continent.

July 2006, journalists Chief Ebrima Manneh got vanished in the Gambia, December 16 journalist Deyda Hydarawas shot and killed. Other media houses experienced a host of arson attacks from 1996 to 2003. We have seen the closure of other media outlets due to their editorial stand points most of them without a court order.

In 2006, records shows that only Mali, Ghana, Benin, Namibia and South Africa were the only five African countries (5) considered free press states. Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Sierraleone,Burkina Faso, Niger,Nigeria,Central African Republic, Congo Brazzaville, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Lesotho, Botswana, Madagascar, Comoros, and Seychachelles(19) are all considered partially mediafree countries.The rest including our own the Gambia is among (29) countries on the continent considered NOT press free countries.

African governments, particularly the sub-Saharan Africa have experience murder of many innocent journalists for nothing but being a journalist. In Senegal for example where until recently was one of the countries that was seen to have been very media tolerant is gradually turning into a hell for journalists, a country which is classified as partially free press by Freedom House in 2007.

It is rather unfortunate that this is happening under a regime whose courses were championed by the media when it was on the opposing side. During those years, President WADE speaks in defense and promotion of a free media. Now that the regime is in the presidential palace, the media is being clamp down. It was only few weeks ago when the sport journalists were man handled by state security officers and so far nothing is done about those abuses.

In contrast to many of our African states, Mali one of the only five African states is worth emulations, it does not mean that all is okay in Mali but others should emulate them.Let’s look at how Freedom House describes this little West African state.

“Despite its status as one of the poorest nations in the world, Mali is home to a press that is among the freest in Africa. The constitution protects the right to free speech, and the government generally respects this right in practice. Nonetheless, severer punishments for libel still exist under the 1993 law that criminalized slander. Journalists are occasionally subject to harassment, particularly when covering cases of government corruption.

In general, the government strives to guarantee both an open environment for the media and universal access to information. It hasfunded the establishment of community radio stations that broadcast in local languages for the benefit of Mali’s sizeable illiterate population. Today there are more than 100 private radio stations and over 50 independent newspapers, many of whom openly criticize the government. The country’s only television station remains under the control of the government but provides balanced political coverage. Access to foreign media and to the internet is unrestricted by government, though in practice both are accessible only to be very wealthy or well connected”. Freedom House freedom of the press 2006.

The situation in other African states like Zimbabwe is horrible. We have seen the likes of Geoffrey Nayarota who was forced to go on exile by the government in 2004, just because of his editorial position. His paper’s offices the Daily news, were burnt down and was virtually forced out of business before leaving his mother land for the USA.

In Nigeria the gruesome murder of editor Giwa by a letter bomb in 1985 was intolerance by an African state, In Burkina Faso too, we have on record the killing of Editor Norbert Zonko. And in all these cases there have not been any government commitments in terms of investigating the circumstances of their murder by all standards.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, on November 3, 2005, unidentified gunmen killed veteran political affairs journalists who work for the independent daily La Reference Plus, Franck Kangundu. He was shot dead along with his wife Helene Mpaka, out side their home in the capital Kinshasa. This list can go un-ended.

Else where out side Africa there are journalists who are murdered and some whose lives were attempted, but that is by no means that our African governments should continue their intolerance.

13 September 2000, Michel Auger a crime reporter in Montreal Canada, was shot but survive the shots. In the five years between Desrocherss’ death and Auger getting shot there had been nearly 160 gang-related murders, 172 murder attempts, 130 arson attacks and 85 bombings.

In Pakistan critical reporting of local landowners and police may have led to the murder of Pakistani journalist Zubair Ahmed Mujahid, says the dead man’s brother. A man on a motor bicycle shot Mujahid in November 2000, a correspondent with the national Daily Jong newspaper.

The editor in- chief of Sri Lanka’s Sunday Leader has vowed not to back down from criticizing the government after his paper’s press was destroyedin an armed arson attack.

And in Iraq journalists Bahjat a thirty year old journalists who had just joined Al- Arabia after working as a correspondent for Al- Jazeera since 2003 was shot and killed. She is a CPJ 2006 awardee.

CPJ, Committee To Protect Journalists has documented more than 70 serious cases of harassment, threats, obstruction, detention, and assaults against journalists since the second Chechen war began six years to 2005.

In Lebanon a bomb ripped through Samir Quassir’s white Alfa Romeo on June 2, 2005, silenced Lebanon’s most fearless journalist. For years, Quassir’s outspoken columns in the daily Al-Nahar took on the Syrian government and its Lebanese allies when few reporters dared to do so.

On October 12 2005, Turkish – American journalists Hrants dink was convicted of insulting and weakening Turkish identity through the media. he was sentence to a six month imprisonment.

Huseynov, founder and editor of the opposition weekly news magazine monitor, was gunned down in the capital Baku. He was shot several times while walking up the stairwells of his building on his way back from work, according to local reports. The shooting occurred at approximately 9pm, and the editor died at the scene, the Baku-based independent news agency Turan reported.

Freedom House a reputable media organization in its 2007 map of press freedom reflects the flow of news and information within and between 195 countries and territories. Universal criteria determine the judgment, starting with Article 19 of the United Nations Declaration of human rights.

Criteria includes the legal environment in which the media operates ; the degree of independenceof the news mediafrom governmental ownership and influence , economic pressures on news content, and diverse violations of press freedom , fromthe murder of journalists to other extralegal abuses and harassments by both state and non state-actors

In 006, there were 1.181 billion people living in countries with free media, representing 18 per cent of the world’s population. There were 2.567 billion people living in countries with partially free media representing 39 per cent of the world’ population. There were 2.798 billion people living in countries with not free media representing 43 per cent of the world’s population.