Saturday, 28 July 2012

Sirleaf’s food for thought on press freedom


By Aliyu Musa

The recent decision by Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to ratify the Table Mountain Declaration which seeks to enhance press freedom and eliminate the abuse and victimisation of journalists is a development deserving commendation. To fully appreciate the pertinence of this action one needs to understand the current predicaments of journalists in most African countries. One needs to also have a full grasp of the situation under which they work and the sort of hazards they face from various fronts.

Perhaps, it won’t be totally out of place to argue that journalists are a category of endangered species on the continent. But President Johnson’s move, if matched with real action and in time, is a major relief for journalists and the media. She alongside Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou who’s the first to endorse the declaration, is a trailblazer whose effort is worthy of replication as it would be of immense benefit to all.

Although it may not be premeditated, regimes that inhibit press freedom significantly play a role in stimulating the emergence of clandestine media. Francis Nyamnjoh fittingly argues that under repressive rules people devise alternative means of ensuring their voices are not muffled. Some of these alternatives are what he describes as clandestine or grapevine media that utilise “the grapevine, political rumour, humour, parody, irony or derision”.

They often come with costly prices for the journalists, the society and even those perpetuating the repressive rules that oust freedom of speech. This is because clandestine journalism is clearly an aberration; the biggest victims are the consumers who are denied the right to know the truth. But journalists are also exposed to huge risks, including the possibility of losing their lives. And by defying the rules the authors are subjected to mockery and loss of relevance (and authority).

In the days of military rule in Nigeria, for instance, one recalls vividly how the regime of the late Gen Sani Abacha banned a number of newspapers and news magazines for being too critical. But in total defiance, some of them went underground and continued to operate mobile news production in which the stories the rulers loathed most were retailed with complete disdain. It was also a time that saw the emergence of more clandestine media, some of which easily fizzled out as soon as the obnoxious rules were repelled.

The suppression of press freedom is not common to military or dictatorial regimes alone. Democratic governments are known to have equally denied it with impunity. Even in the developed world where the media have grown to such an intimidating size that they can hardly be subdued, some form of tactical repression still exists. This is in the form of imperceptible but firm control.

Noam Chomsky suggests that control of the media is essential for any regime, civil or military, to manipulate the people. Thus, using the American situation as an analogy, he describes how the society is idiosyncratically divided into a handful of herders, on the one hand, and the large population of the bewildered herd, on the other. The leaders run the affairs of the led without much consultation with or approval from the led. The led only play a one off role (at long intervals) of electing the leaders. They are too bewildered to be allowed a real say and the media are used to successfully make this idea of disorientated herd look real.

In Nigeria and, indeed, much of Africa the situation does not differ much from the above analogy. What could be added is that, as frankly put by Professor Chomsky, whereas in America (and most developed countries) propaganda is endlessly employed to keep the flock perpetually confused, in Africa violent repression is employed to achieve the same objective.

Many of us have lost count of the number of times media houses were forced to shut down as a result of government clampdown or journalists sent to jail for simply reporting the obvious. For example in Cameroun in 2010, as documented by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), four journalists were jailed for allegedly being in possession of documents that raised questions on fiscal impropriety. One of them died in confinement.

It is the same tale everywhere on the continent. But countries like Eritrea, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, Sudan, Cameroun, Morocco and Zimbabwe etc top the list of violators. A Moroccan journalist friend and former course mate Ali Amar, who’s the co-founder and editor of the now proscribed Casablanca weekly ‘Le Journal hebdomadaire’, is currently exiled to Slovenia. His crime was a consistent criticism of the country’s monarch.

Our democracy in Nigeria has not done much to assuage the pain of journalists as they continue to face victimisation and/or violence. Many have died as a result. Whereas some of the killings are said to be political many, however, defy explanations.

It is important, though, to note the involvement of individuals and/or groups outside of the government in carrying out some of these atrocious acts against journalists. The murder of Zakariya Isa and Enenche Akogwu were, for example, carried out by foot soldiers of a dreaded religious sect.

Any serious narrative of the crimes committed against journalists in Nigeria cannot be complete without mentioning the murder of Dele Giwa (1986) and Bagauda Kaltho (in the dangerous mid to late 1990s). It is also worthwhile that, at least, a mention is made of the imprisonment of many others like Tunde Thompson, Nduka Irabor, Chris Anyanwu, Kunle Ajibade, George M’bah, Ben Charles-Obi, Niran Malaolu etc.

A major import of Mrs Sirleaf’s action is that it comes from the leader of a country that is just emerging from the ruins of a civil war and struggling with post-war reconstruction; a country whose former leader, Charles Taylor, ordered (and possibly supervised) the killing of hundreds of innocent people including two Nigerian journalists reporting the conflict, Tayo Awotunsin and Krees Imodibe. These and all other victims will remain a scar on the conscience of African leaders until they emulate the honourable path Mrs Sirleaf and President Issoufou have taken.

It is, nevertheless, heartening to hear that the Liberian president plans using her leadership role to promote press freedom on the African continent. This will serve as a springboard for a new collaborative journalism that the continent badly needs to forge ahead.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

These are impressive articles. Keep up the noble be successful.

1 August 2012 at 02:59

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