Africa's fight for ethics
By David Karanja Posted Fri, Sep 1 2000
In February this year, Andy Moyse, the acting editor of The Standard, a Zimbabwe weekly newspaper, resigned in disgrace after admitting that the newspaper had written a false report. The report falsely stated that the government had published a new constitution for the country before it was subject to public debate.
It was not the first time The Standard earned the wrath of the government. A year earlier, it raised a storm by reporting that the army planned to stage a coup.
Moyse recanted his admission of false reporting and, with two colleagues, denied inaccuracy when they were charged in court by the government for criminal defamation on February 23.
On June 16 a Harare magistrate found Moyse, publisher Clive Wilson and reporter Chengetai Zvauya guilty, holding them responsible for reporting the allegations, which turned out to be false. The journalists were fined thousands of US dollars for the offense.
Incidents like these, where governments complain of inaccurate reporting, are common in Africa’s media. But as the wind of political change continues to blow across the continent, an atmosphere of political liberalism has set in, and the muzzling of the media by governments has relaxed. Interestingly, the reduced crackdown has led to new concerns over the ability of the media to be responsible enough to adhere to professional ethics.
In the case of Zimbabwe, the government has recently been on the offensive, accusing the media of going overboard. At a media workshop on World Press Freedom Day last year, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information, Willard Chiwewe, thundered: “If media freedom will kill my mother, to hell with it! And if media freedom will bring war to my country, to hell with it again!”
Chiwewe’s outburst may have been off the mark, but his concern over media irresponsibility was not far-fetched. Incidents that call to question the integrity of media workers have occurred. Last year two Sunday Mail journalists were caught red-handed receiving a US$200 bribe from a businessman in exchange for positive coverage.
In the light of these concerns over ethics and media responsibility, the government has drafted a media bill that calls for a media council to police the press. Although the bill is yet to be submitted for consideration in the parliament, it has met with stiff resistance from editors of the mainstream media, who think the media should regulate themselves.
Zimbabwe is not alone in this dilemma. In Uganda, where current President Yoweri Museveni abandoned the repressive policies of his predecessors, the media have become not only vibrant, but also bold. In this new atmosphere, the pornographic press has thrived since 1997.
The mushrooming of magazines with nude women on the covers started as a joke. One title called Chic hit the streets with a print run of 1,000 copies. They were quickly snapped up and the following month’s issue sold 25,000 copies. In a country where the leading newspaper, New Vision, sells 35,000 copies daily, this was a phenomenal achievement. Five more titles were quickly introduced into the market.
The birth of the new brand of journalism caused a stir. The Catholic Church raised concern and petitioned the government to ban the magazines. Museveni shied off from launching a crackdown for fear of being labeled an enemy of the media, but a perceived need to regulate the media gained support.
The same concerns over media regulation have been witnessed in Kenya. In 1996 the government published a bill aimed at legislating the formation of a press-monitoring council to ensure media workers adhere to professional ethics. The bill raised a storm of protest among journalists, who saw it as a government attempt to muzzle the press. The government caved in under pressure and shelved it.
But even as the bill died a natural death, concerns over ethics in the media have not subsided. Instead, as the media continue to grow, the question has gained more relevance. The country’s newsstands have been flooded with newsletters, periodicals and newspapers whose reporting of scandals sometimes borders on libel and gross unprofessional conduct. Last March the publisher of The Metropolitan, a weekly newspaper, and his three writers were charged in court after being caught soliciting a US$1,300 bribe from a member of Parliament to stop negative publicity on him.
Serious debate over media regulation is spurred by incidents like these. Most African governments have been very intolerant of a free press, but the legacy of past suppressions cannot absolve Africa’s media from the responsibility of creating high journalistic standards.
Tanzania offers a good example of a country where media regulation has begun to bear fruit. After the government expressed a desire to come up with a mechanism to police the press, media workers debated the way forward and decided to form a media-driven monitoring body. The result was the formation in 1996 of the Media Council of Tanzania, a voluntary, independent and non-statutory organization that arbitrates in cases where the media are accused of false reporting. The council is encouraging the upholding of high professional standards by imposing heavy fines on editors unable to substantiate offending stories.
There is no consensus among Africa’s media as to whether the government, or the press itself, should be responsible for the regulation. In most cases those working for government media insist that only the government can regulate the media, while those in the private press say that the press should regulate itself and be able to uphold professional standards. In Zimbabwe Bornwell Chakaodza, editor of the government-owned Herald, said the government should police the media. Veteran Kenyan journalist Philip Ochieng also condemns what he called the “gutter press” for unprofessional conduct, and says it justifies the government’s insistence on regulating the media.
Self-censorship is another issue that concerns many journalists.
“The worst enemy of media freedom in Zimbabwe is not the government but the corporate sector,” says Trevor Ncube, editor in chief of The Independent, commenting on on how much the advertisers are able to control what editors publish and what they don’t. When editorial integrity and business interests are in conflict, editors are likely to withhold information to protect the latter.
Africa’s media can no longer be said to be in infancy. Though still far from matching the standards of those in Europe and North America, the mass media have grown tremendously in the past three decades and need to adhere strictly to professional ethics. As media workers demand tolerance of a free press by governments, they must know that they shoulder the heavy responsibility of upholding high professional standards. But the question remains: Who is to regulate the media to ensure high standards?
Every country has its unique situation where specific circumstances decide the way forward. The United Kingdom and the United States are good examples of success in creating media plurality and freedom with nonetheless high ethical standards.
Africa’s media need to play a leading role in their own regulation. They should not let the government usurp that responsibility.