MEDIA: African Editors Confront their Priorities

By James Hall Reprint | | Print |

James Hall

JOHANNESBURG, Apr 18 2003 (IPS) - Top African journalists confronted their priorities this week, asking themselves whether their loyalty is with the unvarnished truth or the development of the continent, or whether both goals can be achieved compatibly.

130 media executives from most nations on the continent convened this week in Midrand, outside of Southern Africa’s largest metropolis, for the second All African Editors Forum. The agenda was to see how African media could report political and developmental initiatives like the African Union (AU) and the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD).

"We expected to focus on development issues, the war in Iraq, and on the Zimbabwe situation. But then (South African President Thabo) Mbeki challenged us to look at our identity," said Ricardo Artur of Mozambique.

Mbeki addressed media editors on both days of the conference. He is currently president of the African Union, launched last year to replace the 30 year-old Organisation of African Unity (OAU). NEPAD has a way to go to achieve its ambition of coordinated continental economic development founded on commitment to democratic governing principals, but Mbeki, a founding father of the initiative, is a forceful advocate.

He told media editors, "You must proceed from the presumption that you were African before you were journalists, and despite your professions you are Africans still."

Most delegates were surprised by the challenge, which suggested they were subject to a division of loyalties.

"Is Mbeki suggesting an ‘either/or’ situation, that by being journalists we are somehow unable to be African, and so we must prioritise our ‘African-ness?’ Does he want biased, non-objective reporting to promote his African Unity? What kind of unity is based on propaganda?" asked one South African editor.

Mbeki seemed to reject that interpretation when he said that reporting should be critical, but sympathetic to Africa and told from an African perspective.

"The West has been reporting its biases of Africa for years. Many African journalists are trained in the West, and they bring home these biases, which are reflected in their writing about other African countries," he said.

Mbeki said there is a tone of condescension when one African country reports on another, just as the Western press condescends toward the continent as a whole.

In the end, the AU president said, he would like to see more African content in news, and more attention devoted to African issues and events occurring elsewhere in Africa.

One working committee at the editors’ conference noted the need for an African version of the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television network, which serves the Arab nations of the Middle East. Mbeki endorsed the proposal.

Most editors did not object to the notion that they were Africans first, journalists second.

"Look at news coverage of the War in Iraq done by CNN, MSNBC and the Fox Network," said a South African editor, referring to news stations beamed to Africa via satellite. "They compete with each other to be the most pro-American, and the flag waving violates all tenants of objective journalism. I do not propose nationalism, but a sense of patriotism toward the African continent is necessary to keep African issues in the forefront when these are overlooked by the international community."

As a counter-balance to calls for African-centric reporting, government interference with the media was discouraged by editors.

"State-owned media houses should be privatised," said Gert Jacobia, editor of the Republican newspaper in Namibia.

Swaziland’s government was condemned for a media policy instituted by its ministry of information the week of the conference that censored the reporting of any news story deemed embarrassing to government or against the interests of royal leadership. Radio and TV are a state-owned monopoly in Swaziland.

Robert Mugabe’s government in Zimbabwe was widely decried for its crackdown on the media.

That African editors freely criticised media failings in their own and other countries displayed a commitment to unbiased journalistic standards, while showing how committed the editors also were to the free flow of information.

"We are not going to censor any story because someone – least of all a government official – thinks it is bad for Africa," said Sechele Sechele, editor of one of Botswana’s largest newspapers, Mmegi.

African editors are of one mind when it came to the need of improving standards of journalism on the continent. They noted with some humour the reporter for Swaziland’s state-owned radio station who this month filed "live" reports from the front lines in the Iraqi war zone when in fact he was phoning in reports that he compiled from newspaper clippings from his home.

Other transgressions cited by the editors were more serious, leading for a call to better-trained journalists and their editors. Local institutions like Rhodes University’s School of Journalism in Grahamstown, South Africa, present African venues for study where African values are respected and the African perspective presented. Most nations now have journalism classes attached to their universities.

"We have to get African reporting out there on the continent, and then we can tell the African story from our point of view to the world, instead of having our story told by outsiders," Phil Molefe, Editor-in-Chief of the South African 24-hour satellite news service, SABC Africa, told IPS.