news in

      Homepage
      Global affairs
      Africa
      Asia-Pacific
      Caribbean
      Europe
      Latin America
      Middle East
      North America
 
      Environment
      Development
      Human Rights
      Population
      Health
      Arts &
      Entertainment
      Columns
 
      News in RSS
 
      Subscriptions
      Readers' Opinions
      About IPS

Africa Is Not In Flames

By Thalif Deen

At a closed-door ministerial meeting of LDCs yesterday, one African ambassador was critical of the "lopsided" coverage of the conference by the mainstream Western news media.

A major American television network, he said, kept referring to the LDC conference as a "conference on poverty".

And worst still, he said, the news programme gave only two reasons for widespread poverty in Africa: population and conflicts.

The African envoy said there were no references to some of the key constraints facing LDCs, including market access, rising debts and declining development assistance.

When this distorted view is conveyed to people in Western nations, he pointed out, they get the mistaken impression that LDCs have brought poverty on to themselves.

At a press conference in New York last week, Ambassador Daudi Mwakawago of Tanzania, a former chairman of the 133-member Group of 77 developing nations, appealed to the international news media to play a key role in ensuring the success of the conference.

"When we speak of partnerships with the North, we are speaking to you too," he told a group of UN reporters.

Mwakawago called on the international news media - particularly those from the North - to rally public opinion and raise awareness about the plight of

the 630 million people living in the 49 LDCs.

When he reads newspapers and watches television these days, he said, he gets the impression that "the whole of Africa is in flames". But this is not true.

"Africa is paying a price for such a negative image. But it is costing us in terms of investments and tourism," he added.

The negative news reports about Africa, he said, is also one of the contributory factors to the decline in the plight of LDCs.

"The media could help present a more balanced picture of Africa and other LDCs, so that their populations are not condemned to permanent underdevelopment," he added.