In April nearly 100 African editors held an indaba in South Africa to discuss the issue of editorial and media independence on the continent for the 21st century. The indaba, organised by the South National Editor’s Forum (SANEF) in partnership with the NSJ Training Institute and the Institute for Global Dialogue, was in part inspired by the formation of the African Union (AU) and its development blueprint, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). Quite clearly, the editors saw an opportunity for the fourth estate to outline the conditions under which the media would play a role in the ‘African Renaissance’.
Now that the dust has settled, it is important to take stock of this event.
Significantly, the conference managed to get participation from more than half of the countries on the continent. Every region was represented. Given the logistical nightmares that face Africans when they try to meet in Africa, this is a major achievement. My personal experience is that it’ s often easier for Africans across the continent to meet in Europe and North America. (There’s a NEPAD communications and transport challenge for you).
A closer look, though, shows that South Africa had the highest number of representatives. Of course, the country was the conference venue. But South Africa also has one of the largest formal media structures on the continent, and is better resourced than most media in Africa. In terms of regions, Southern Africa (even if one excludes South Africa) was the best represented. North Africa, a powerful and critically important region economically, was on the opposite end of the spectrum with only Egypt sending the deputy editor of one paper. West Africa, which has the longest history of a purely Africa-owned press, had two just representatives from Nigeria (this against six representatives each from Malawi and Namibia).
Interestingly, there was a dominance of print media editors to the exclusion of editors from radio, television and online media. In general terms print media enjoys relatively higher degrees of freedom in Africa
(outside SA) than broadcast media, which are by and large still state
owned and controlled. So the indaba was to some extent a gathering of the converted. But careful scrutiny of the list of participants also shows quite a number of editors from state-controlled print media, who either know which side their bread is buttered and report accordingly, or willingly surrender their editorial independence for partisan political reasons.
It seemed that the keynote speaker, current AU Chair and one of the chief NEPAD architects SA President Thabo Mbeki, thought the editors were needlessly going on about an issue that had already been settled. “I did not think thatAfricans such as yourselves would consciously engage in the rather fruitless exercise of pushing an open door,” he said.
In his address Mbeki turned the tables on the editors by pointing out that the threat to the media in reporting African issues was not only lack of editorial independence, but also, lo and behold, the ignorance of journalists! He identified two manifestations of this ignorance: firstly, lack of knowledge about Africa and its complexities, leading to the production of stereotypes similar to the dominant image of Africa in western media; and secondly, lack of knowledge about the Constitutive Act of the AU and NEPAD’s African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), including the relationship between the good governance provisions of the former and the latter
Mbeki then alleged that this ignorance leads to anti-African positions in reporting about the continent, which results in further dominance of Africa by the North.
In several statements Mbeki strongly recommended that, for Africa to move forward, journalists need to become better informed. He emphasised the need for journalists to take unambiguously pro-African perspectives and become “embedded among the African masses.” Subtle implications that at present African journalists are reporting as if the audience is not African, and as if they themselves are not Africans!
Finally, Mbeki used a series of quotes from media critics and analysts to suggest that the media no longer plays its key role: that of providing and analysing information and facilitating representation of the broadest possible range of opinion. Instead, he said, the media churns out all manner of fluff and trivia and panders to advertisers, powerful interests and the agendas of domination. He challenged editors to reclaim their position as critical role players in Africa’s rebirth.
Whether or not the editors agreed with Mbeki, in terms of outcomes his words did not go unheeded. The conference produced a declaration that affirmed the need for journalists to tell African stories from African perspectives. It also outlined the need for continuous training and skills development (including the need for training of journos and editors around the role and provisions of AU and NEPAD).
Finally, the conference resolved to form an All Africa Editor’s Forum, which would have regional forums. As SANEF chair Mathatha Tsedu noted, there are immense challenges ahead for this proposed body, not least of which are the old bugbears of funding and management. Dr. Tawana Kupe is head of media studies at Wits University’s School of Literature and Language Studies.