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Freedoms intertwine in complex civil compact
Fackson Banda
May 03, 2006

http://www.pretorianews.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3227390

The World Press Freedom Day is a moment for reflection. How far has the media in southern Africa, let alone South Africa, advanced citizenship freedom? The amount of citizenship freedom achieved determines the amount of media freedom attained.

The denial of citizenship rights in Zimbabwe is a good indicator of how repressed media freedom is. Zimbabweans, under state siege, are celebrating the World Press Freedom Day in lamentation. They are campaigning against state-imposed statutory media regulation. The South African National Editors' Forum (Sanef) is involved in a campaign to locate media freedom as the citizen's freedom.

The concept of "citizenship" is useful to understand the interface between the public and the media. From the ancient Greek city-states onwards, four assumptions have underpinned the concept:

• Citizens must be well-informed;
• Citizens are interested in politics;
• Citizens have equal rights to speak and participate in decision-making, and
• All decisions are submitted to public discussion.

It seems, then, that a viable citizenship would be one in which individuals or collectivities enjoy juridical, political, economic and cultural rights to enable them to actively participate in their territory.

Citizenship as freedom is endorsed by the Afrobarometer study conducted in 12 African countries, including South Africa. When asked "what, if anything, does democracy mean to you?", 40% of the respondents referred to civil liberties, especially freedom of expression.

Afrobarometer thus concluded that Africans regarded democracy mainly in terms of freedom.

The ideal of the media-citizens compact is not without threats. The threats emanate from three major sources.

Firstly: the media. An important threat is media commercialisation. Since the 1990s, commercialisation has dominated media survival strategies. For example, the fall of the apartheid regime and the consequent liberalisation of the media landscape resulted in the SABC's famous "corporatisation" strategy, whereby some public radio stations were privatised and the SABC restructured into a "public service broadcaster" and a "commercial public service broadcaster".

Commercialisation has diversified media environments and funding in Africa, but evidence suggests that as competition intensifies, content is increasingly being shaped by the demands of advertisers and sponsors rather than public interest factors. Some commentators have suggested that financial considerations are the most important risk to genres like investigative journalism.

Another media-related threat is witting or unwitting disregard for professionalism. The integrity of journalism correlates with adherence to ethical principles. Journalism is supposed to be a truthful representation of the real world. Journalistic ethics are a tool to facilitate the social construction of
legitimacy among the audience.

There are increasing complaints against the perceived lack of journalistic professionalism among African media. In Zambia, journalists have set up a powerless media council. In Tanzania, at least, there is an entrenched media council. In Malawi, there is no viable media council.

The second source of threats is the state. In most of Africa, constitutional guarantees of media freedom are limited in terms of "national security", "public health", "public morality" etc. In Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia and Malawi, the state broadcasting systems continue to remain largely in the service of ruling elites.

The Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra) is still under state control, rendering broadcasting state-dependent. In Zambia, the state has refused to recognise the existence of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) because it is not happy with the people appointed to direct it.

Most states also have inherited archaic legal regimes. Different versions of the Official Secrets Act continue to "gag" public officials in Botswana, Malawi and Zambia.

Zimbabwe is even worse, with most public information classified under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Journalists are also required to register with the Media and Information Commission.

In addition, efforts to legislate a Freedom of Information (FOI) Act in most of Africa have failed. The enactment of the US Patriot Act has made things even worse, as many African governments are using it to justify their reluctance.

Even where there is progress, as in South Africa, some old legislation inherited from the apartheid era remains. Such legislation includes the Criminal Procedure Act, the Defence Act and the Armaments Development and Petroleum Act.

The state also employs many other strategies to cripple private media, such as withdrawal of state advertising from such media, blatant harassment of reporters and tax on the means of media production.

In Zambia, it was only a united civil-society campaign that pressured the state to back down from implementing early this year Value Added Tax (VAT) on the cover price of newspapers.

Thirdly, citizens themselves can be a threat. Evidence suggests that organised civil society, especially NGOs, can be co-opted into the state and lose its mobilising edge.

Another problem is civic apathy: low political participation between elections. The Afrobarometer study shows that while 71% of Africans claimed to have voted in the last national election, only 43% ever joined with others to raise an issue. Only 11% report having joined a protest, indicating that civic activism is on the decline. It is clear that the media have a role to play in enhancing citizenship.

Freer citizens are a more effective testimony of a freer media system. However, this "media-citizenship compact" can only be strengthened in the presence of "public interest" media, an enabling legislative and policy environment, and active citizens.

*Professor Fackson Banda is SABMiller Chair of Media and Democracy School of Journalism and Media Studies, Rhodes University

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