Sub-Saharan Africa censors Mideast protests
18 February, 2011 | By Mohamed Keita/CPJ Africa
Advocacy Coordinator
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nowhere is the news blackout more extreme than in Eritrea,
where the government has banned independent media since 2001.
Typing "Egypt" in the search field of the government news website
Shabait returns about 50 results, the most recent and relevant of
which is a December 3, 2010, item titled: "Presidents Isaias and
Mubarak conduct discussion in Cairo." Eritrean sources told CPJ,
however, that satellite dishes in the capital Asmara's rooftops
allowed people to follow the unfolding events.
Earlier this month, Equatorial Guinea's information minister,
Jerónimo Osa Osa Ecoro, issued a statement accusing those who
criticize the 32-year authoritarian ruler Teodoro Obiang's election
as the new president of the African Union of failing to
"acknowledge the enormous steps" taken by Obiang toward
democratization and human rights. Notwithstanding that Obiang
won his last national election with 97 percent of the vote amid
allegations of poll-rigging, it didn't take long for his claim to be
contradicted by a news blackout by the government-controlled
national broadcaster RTVGE on protests in North Africa since
February 11, according to news reports. Nevertheless, satellite
dishes in Malabo allowed most people to access news and
information, according to a local source. The same day the
blackout started, Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel, editor of cultural
magazine Atanga and a blogger with Spain-based online magazine
Frontera Digital began a hunger strike that he vowed not to stop
until a transitional government ushering democratic reforms was
not put in place in Equatorial Guinea.
Flipping the pages of Zimbabwe's government-controlled daily
The Herald, Vincent Kahiya, editor-in-chief of the private Harare-
based daily Newsday said to me on Thursday: "There is nothing
on the international page on what's happening in Bahrain, Libya,
and so on." Instead, he noted, "What we have seen is commentary
on what they're not reporting." In fact, the ruling Zanu-PF-
controlled state media has, among other things, accused the
United States, which maintains sanctions restricting travel,
financial, and business assets of President Robert Mugabe and
members of the ruling Zanu-PF elite, of interfering in Egypt's
"rebellion." Another journalist, whose name I have withheld for
fear of government reprisals, shared in an e-mail: "I have DSTV
[South Africa-based Digital Satellite Television] and I hardly
watch Zimbabwean TV or read The Herald." In fact, "CNN etc.
is God-sent on these protests," wrote another journalist.
"Zimbabweans are talking about it, and there's a lot of interest on
those issues," Kahiya said, adding that private newspapers
reporting the North African developments were selling quickly.
In Ethiopia, a local journalist who spoke on condition of
anonymity for fear of government reprisals used the term "silent
report" to describe the coverage of the government-controlled
Ethiopian Television and Radio Agency, explaining that the station
limited newscasters to reading two or three paragraphs without
further reporting. Nevertheless, "much of the public is well aware
of the issues," the source said, adding that even rural area people
had access to satellite TV.
Ethiopian police became apparently angered by persecuted
journalist Eskinder Nega's coverage of the protests. Nega, whose
weekly columns appear on U.S.-based news forum EthioMedia,
was picked up on February 11 as he walked out of a café in the
capital, Addis Ababa. He later reported that the Ethiopian deputy
commissioner of police allegedly delivered to him a warning from
the government for his alleged "to incite an Egyptian and Tunisian
like protests in Ethiopia," with his Internet writings. Nega's
columns compared and contrasted Egypt and Ethiopia in terms of
the military's role in politics, and pro-democracy movements,
according to CPJ research.
In Djibouti, where a series of protests have erupted since last
month, government-controlled state broadcaster Radio Télévision
de Djibouti was also censoring news of the North African
protests, a local journalist told CPJ on condition of anonymity for
fear of government reprisals. However, few Djiboutians watch the
channel and most people passionately follow developments
through their satellite dishes, the journalist said.
In Gabon, where supporters of opposition supporters have been
protesting since André Mba Obame claimed fraud had robbed
him of victory in the August 2009 presidential elections and
declared himself president, state media's coverage of the North
African protests has also been minimal, said independent editor
Norbert Goua Mezuï. "I don't even watch the national channels, I
do when I stumble on them," he said, "but we rely on France 24,
Africa 24, TV5, TF1, and France 2 to tell us what is really
happening elsewhere."
---------------------------------------------------------------
Mohamed Keita is advocacy coordinator for CPJ's Africa
Program. He regularly gives interviews in French and
English to international news media on press freedom issues
in Africa and has participated in several panels. Follow him
on Twitter: @africamedia_CPJ.
Courtesy
18 February, 2011 | By Mohamed Keita/CPJ Africa
Advocacy Coordinator
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- As news of Middle
Eastern and North
African protests swirl
around the globe, satellite
television and the Internet
prove vital sources of
information for Africans
as governments fearful of
an informed citizenry and
a free press such as in
Eritrea, Equatorial
Guinea, and Zimbabwe
Nowhere is the news blackout more extreme than in Eritrea,
where the government has banned independent media since 2001.
Typing "Egypt" in the search field of the government news website
Shabait returns about 50 results, the most recent and relevant of
which is a December 3, 2010, item titled: "Presidents Isaias and
Mubarak conduct discussion in Cairo." Eritrean sources told CPJ,
however, that satellite dishes in the capital Asmara's rooftops
allowed people to follow the unfolding events.
Earlier this month, Equatorial Guinea's information minister,
Jerónimo Osa Osa Ecoro, issued a statement accusing those who
criticize the 32-year authoritarian ruler Teodoro Obiang's election
as the new president of the African Union of failing to
"acknowledge the enormous steps" taken by Obiang toward
democratization and human rights. Notwithstanding that Obiang
won his last national election with 97 percent of the vote amid
allegations of poll-rigging, it didn't take long for his claim to be
contradicted by a news blackout by the government-controlled
national broadcaster RTVGE on protests in North Africa since
February 11, according to news reports. Nevertheless, satellite
dishes in Malabo allowed most people to access news and
information, according to a local source. The same day the
blackout started, Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel, editor of cultural
magazine Atanga and a blogger with Spain-based online magazine
Frontera Digital began a hunger strike that he vowed not to stop
until a transitional government ushering democratic reforms was
not put in place in Equatorial Guinea.
Flipping the pages of Zimbabwe's government-controlled daily
The Herald, Vincent Kahiya, editor-in-chief of the private Harare-
based daily Newsday said to me on Thursday: "There is nothing
on the international page on what's happening in Bahrain, Libya,
and so on." Instead, he noted, "What we have seen is commentary
on what they're not reporting." In fact, the ruling Zanu-PF-
controlled state media has, among other things, accused the
United States, which maintains sanctions restricting travel,
financial, and business assets of President Robert Mugabe and
members of the ruling Zanu-PF elite, of interfering in Egypt's
"rebellion." Another journalist, whose name I have withheld for
fear of government reprisals, shared in an e-mail: "I have DSTV
[South Africa-based Digital Satellite Television] and I hardly
watch Zimbabwean TV or read The Herald." In fact, "CNN etc.
is God-sent on these protests," wrote another journalist.
"Zimbabweans are talking about it, and there's a lot of interest on
those issues," Kahiya said, adding that private newspapers
reporting the North African developments were selling quickly.
In Ethiopia, a local journalist who spoke on condition of
anonymity for fear of government reprisals used the term "silent
report" to describe the coverage of the government-controlled
Ethiopian Television and Radio Agency, explaining that the station
limited newscasters to reading two or three paragraphs without
further reporting. Nevertheless, "much of the public is well aware
of the issues," the source said, adding that even rural area people
had access to satellite TV.
Ethiopian police became apparently angered by persecuted
journalist Eskinder Nega's coverage of the protests. Nega, whose
weekly columns appear on U.S.-based news forum EthioMedia,
was picked up on February 11 as he walked out of a café in the
capital, Addis Ababa. He later reported that the Ethiopian deputy
commissioner of police allegedly delivered to him a warning from
the government for his alleged "to incite an Egyptian and Tunisian
like protests in Ethiopia," with his Internet writings. Nega's
columns compared and contrasted Egypt and Ethiopia in terms of
the military's role in politics, and pro-democracy movements,
according to CPJ research.
In Djibouti, where a series of protests have erupted since last
month, government-controlled state broadcaster Radio Télévision
de Djibouti was also censoring news of the North African
protests, a local journalist told CPJ on condition of anonymity for
fear of government reprisals. However, few Djiboutians watch the
channel and most people passionately follow developments
through their satellite dishes, the journalist said.
In Gabon, where supporters of opposition supporters have been
protesting since André Mba Obame claimed fraud had robbed
him of victory in the August 2009 presidential elections and
declared himself president, state media's coverage of the North
African protests has also been minimal, said independent editor
Norbert Goua Mezuï. "I don't even watch the national channels, I
do when I stumble on them," he said, "but we rely on France 24,
Africa 24, TV5, TF1, and France 2 to tell us what is really
happening elsewhere."
---------------------------------------------------------------
Mohamed Keita is advocacy coordinator for CPJ's Africa
Program. He regularly gives interviews in French and
English to international news media on press freedom issues
in Africa and has participated in several panels. Follow him
on Twitter: @africamedia_CPJ.
Courtesy
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| A man sets up a satellite dish in Zimbabwe, where state news is severely restricted on the ongoing protests in the Middle East, but where CNN is still accessible. (AP) |