Media Leaders Told To Stop Being Critical And Make More Money

Michael Hedges November 11, 2013 Follow on Twitter

Developing a strong media sector in transitional regions seizes the opportunities of good business, employment and hot technology. And everybody likes good news. Media people need to cooperate, say government officials, and keep everything pretty. Jail is the obvious option.

The message from African heads of state to a conference of the continent’s media executives was plain enough: Enough about press freedom, get on with the business. The African Media Leaders Forum concluded last Friday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with a roundtable of government officials all on message. African media outlets, they said, shouldn’t be disruptive.

International press freedom advocates attending were disappointed. “Besides business models and licensing and other things that are crucial to the media, press freedom also is a very, very important part of doing business,” said International Press Institute (IPI) executive director Alison Bethel McKenzie, quoted by voanews.com (November 8). “There needs to be more time dedicated to the issue.”

IPI and newspaper publisher association WAN-IFRA representatives in attendance wanted to further a discussion about the recent arrests of local Ethiopian journalists (see joint statement here) and a “contentious” draft media law in Kenya (see WAN-IFRA statement here). Instead, African leaders criticized, calling on the media sector to be on the same “developmentalist” page as governments. And the language was far from subtle.

“Freedom of expression is not about truth, it is about the freedom of the sponsors of the media, of advertisers to propagate old (racist and colonial) narratives,” said Kenyan Deputy President William Ruto, speaking for President Uhuru Kenyatta. “It is the freedom to sponsor exploitation and manipulation …through an unbalanced narrative of change.” However, Mr. Ruto said “discussions are underway between various stakeholders to resolve contentious issues” of the proposed media bill and that President Kenyatta would not sign it until revised.

Mr. Ruto is perhaps more widely known outside of Africa for being summoned by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of crimes against humanity, which he denies. The ICC tribunal allowed Mr. Ruto to return to Kenya after extremist gunmen attacked Nairobi’s Westgate Mall shopping center in September. Kenyan authorities strongly criticized news coverage of the incident, which left more than 60 dead, as “provoking propaganda.” The ICC has ordered Mr. Ruto to return to The Hague.

A little censorship is a good thing, said Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, and an African media network is a possible solution, presumably to tote the official line and compete with CNN International, the BBC and others. “We need to stand out as Africa and be heard. We should not allow western media to report negatively about what Africans do. But we can only do this if we speak in one voice.”

“Media performance and, ultimately, its credibility is generally predicated upon its ability to do the following: generate adequate financing to cover its operations, attract professionals with the right credentials, ensure respect for the ethics of the profession, and stay at the cutting edge of technology,” said Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, adequately summing up the conference’s tone. “Inadequate funding generally leaves media professionals vulnerable and subject to one of the most destructive forces known to the profession: what you all infamously call ‘brown envelope journalism’. The consequences of this are well known to you all, and include everything from betrayal of the public trust and loss of public esteem to sensational reporting and poverty of content.”

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