Case studies





CAUTIOUS HOPE:


Freedom of expression in Southern ffrica

by Rashweat Mukundu MISA *

Media and freedom of expression are increasingly a contentious issue in the Southern Africa
region with most countries in the process of discussing new media laws and suppression of
media rising in some countries. Southern Africa is still in the throes of developing its media and
countries such as Zimbabwe still have a long way to go in this area. To demonstrate the
state of media in Southern Africa one needs to look at the political struggles at the South
Africa Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and the closure of a newspaper in Tanzania
in October. These two countries are some of the most stable in the region and tremors in
these countries will reverberate in the rest of the region. While these new challenges arise,
the region still has to contend with some of the worst media laws in countries such as
Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Lesotho. Not ail is lost as ICT (mobile phone and internet) usage
rises in the region, giving hope to millions still without access to information.


 Africa, a project of the early 1990' s,
 saw many changes in the region, crit-
 ically; the independence of Namibia
and South Africa and consolidation of political
multipartism in Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania,
Botswana, Madagascar and Mozambique. At
the same time, the region had to deal with the
unfolding situations in Lesotho, Zimbabwe and
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). At
the centre of these challenges is the place of
media and freedom of expression rights in
national discourse, especially political trans-
formation, reporting human rights violations
and corruption. It is difficult, if not impossible,
to score Southern African countries on such
a basis but categories can be drawn. South
Africa, Botswana, Tanzania, Madagascar,
Mauritius, Zambia, Malawi, Namibia, and
Mozambique are probably in their own cat-
egory in which media plurality and diversity
can be said to exist, but not without challenges.
The media in these countries is fairly diversi-
fied, especially since the 1990s. This category
has numerous newspapers printed by private
players as well as government-owned media
broadcasting stations and newspapers. While


most state-owned media has played the role
of supporting government projects in what
this sector calls 'developmentjournalism', the
private or independent media has endeavoured
to report critically on issues of bad governance
and corruption. This has resulted in the private
media being tarred with the same brush as
opposition parties.

> Uiewed as the opposition

Being seen as part of the opposition comes
with its own challenges. In Namibia, for
example, the government still maintains a ban
on advertising in 'The Namibian' newspaper,
which it accuses of writing negatively about
the SWAPO-led government. In South Africa,
the government threatened to stop advertising
in the 'Sunday Times' after critical reporting
on an arms purchase scandal that has engulfed
the political leadership in that country. The
ruling Africa National Congress (ANC) in
South Africa has also proposed legislation that
would restrict media freedom. The same has
happened in Botswana.
Apart from the threats of economic sanctions,
all countries in this grouping have proposed


laws to curb media and journalistic freedom
under the guise of protecting national interests.
At the time of writing (in October 2008), the
Zambian government was at the throat of 'The
Post' newspaper, threatening to deal with the
newspaper should its Presidential candidate
and current Acting President, Rupiah Banda,
win the Presidential by-election in that coun-
try (ed note: Rupiah Banda won the October
2008 presidential election). In Malawi, the
state has threatened to shut down private radio
stations accused of supporting the opposi-
tion. Botswana once seen as the beacon
of hope in the continent is discussing a
Media Practitioners Bill, which critics have
likened to the infamous Zimbabwean Access
to Information and Protection of Privacy Act
(AIPPA) under which journalists and newspa-
pers have been harassed. Under the proposed
law, the government would register journal-
ists and subject them to a disciplinary code
developed by a government-appointed com-
mission. Those critical of Botswana's govern-
ment especially its handling of the minority
San communities have been bundled out of
the country. In Southern Africa, generally all
media has a fixation with politics while critical


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