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| Reports by theme : Broadcast media |
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African Union | Anti-corruption | APRM | Broadcast media | Citizenship | Development assistance and governance | Election management | Justice sector | Political participation | Public service delivery |
Public Broadcasting in Africa: Cameroon
AfriMAP
30 May 2012
The report on public broadcasting in Cameroon, observes that the country although has a strong track record of media liberalization since the dawn of the millennium, but despite its more than 80 radio and five national television stations challenges remain. Cameroon’s record of upholding press freedom needs to be improved. It also argues that stringent regulatory frameworks currently in place do not encourage a vibrant media environment and falls far short of continental standards and commitments, to which the government is a party to. The report calls for urgent media and legislative reforms that conform to its Constitution, which on paper guarantees the freedom of expression and press, but in practice contradicts such rights. The report urges policy and law makers to repeal and replace such laws as the Freedom of Mass Communications law so as to guarantee freedom of expression and press, thus aligning Cameroon’s media polices with continental instruments such as the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa.
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Public Broadcasting in Africa Series: Kenya
AfriMAP
11 October 2011
Kenya’s liberalisation of the airwaves since the mind-1990s has resulted in the transformation of broadcasting with numerous stations now serving as a platform for information and public debate. This has promoted a culture of participation in the democratic process, and has impacted positively toward good governance. However, the report, written by Grace Githaiga, does argue the need for media laws and regulations on the statute books to align with the country’s new constitution; top amongst which, is the urgent need for a new Kenya Broadcasting Corporation Act. The report provides evidence showing that KBC is both by law and practice, controlled by government, and is used largely to promote the interest of government alone. This, the report further states, goes against the Declaration of Principles of Freedom of Expression in Africa, which espouses for state broadcasters to be transformed into public broadcasters, independent of government and free from political and economic manipulation.
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Public Broadcasting in Africa Series: Mozambique
01 October 2010
Tomas Vieira Mario, a Mozambican media and freedom of expression lawyer and a long-time media activist, explores the country’s media landscape, where an array of laws regarding ‘national security’, introduced during the 16-year civil war, are still on the statute books. He argues that because the culture of secrecy in the public administration is still very strong, the tendencies for impunity, corruption, and lack of transparency could threaten rights of citizens as guaranteed by the constitution. Other aspects of media reform are explored in this publication as well as programming, funding, digital migration, and legislation of media. The report has put forward 43 recommendations aimed at improving public broadcasting and press freedom in Mozambique.
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Public Broadcasting in Africa Series: Namibia
AfriMAP & OSIWA
22 February 2011
Sarah Taylor, author of the report on Public Broadcasting in Namibia, argues that although law reform processes are underway to bring the Namibian legislative environment in line with regional and continental protocols and declarations, some of the proposals fall short of complying with these continental declarations. She states that the Namibian constitution should be amended to guarantee access to information as a fundamental human right. This despite the fact that the famous Windhoek declaration, which clocks 20 and the African Charter on Public Broadcasting which will be 10 years old this year were both established in Namibia, yet the country has no such law which explicitly guarantees access to public information as called for by these declarations and SADC and AU protocols.
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Public Broadcasting in Africa Series: Nigeria
AfriMAP & OSIWA
01 February 2011
This report on the broadcast media in Nigeria finds that liberalisation efforts in the broadcasting sector have only been partially achieved. More than a decade after military rule, the nation still has not managed to enact media legislation that is in line with continental standards, particularly the Declaration on Freedom of Expression in Africa. The report, part of an 11-country survey of broadcast media in Africa, strongly recommends the transformation of the two state broadcasters into a genuine public broadcaster as an independent legal entity with editorial independence and strong safeguards against any interference from the federal government, state governments and other interests. The report was written by Mr. Akin Akingbulu Executive Director, Institute for Media and Society, IMS, Nigeria.
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Public Broadcasting in Africa Series: South Africa
OSF-South Africa, AfriMAP and Open Society Media Program
14 May 2010
This report analyses the crises that have afflicted the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) since 1994. Libby Lloyd, a media and broadcasting consultant based in Johannesburg, Jane Duncan, professor of Media and Information Society at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, Jeanette Minnie, an international freedom of expression and media consultant, and the editor-in-chief of AfriMAP\\\\\\\'s broadcast media project, Hendrik Bussiek, argue that these crises have served to open up the debate on the public broadcaster generally and created the chance for a thorough review of the entire public broadcasting legislation as well as the organisational structures of the SABC. The report delves into challenges of a post apartheid South Africa, where inequality of access to media and its ownership are still prevalent today; other issues include threats to media freedom and democracy due to weak mechanisms on the access to information; and South Africa’s ability to implement with a promised digital migration.
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Public Broadcasting in Africa Series: Uganda
AfriMAP/OSIEA
28 May 2010
Uganda’s broadcast media landscape has witnessed tremendous growth in recent years. While the public broadcaster remains the dominant national player – in terms of reach – in both radio and television, commercial broadcasters have introduced a substantial level of diversity in the industry. Public broadcasting faces serious competition from the numerous private and independent broadcasters, especially in and around the capital Kampala and major urban centres. In fact, the private/commercial sector clearly dominates the industry in most respects, notably productivity and profitability. The public broadcaster, which enjoys wider geographical coverage, faces the challenge of trying to fulfil a broad mandate with little funding. This makes it difficult for UBC to compete with the more nimble operators in the commercial/private sector. Overall, there appears to be a healthy degree of pluralism and diversity in terms of ownership.
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Public Broadcasting in Africa Series: Zambia
16 November 2010
This report written by Chris Chirwa argues that Zambia must make urgent legal reforms within the media sector, especially given government\'s own acknowledgement in 2006, when it unveiled its Fifth National Development Plan, in which it admitted that: \'existing legislative framework within which the media operate does not sufficiently provide for freedom of the media, freedom of information and good governance.\' The report therefore, states that such an acknowledgement, gives firm cue for positive and speedy action to put in place new progressive media legislation and repeal existing laws that impede freedom of media and freedom of information in the country. Zambia currently has legislation that restricts media freedom, amongst which is the Penal Code, which amongst other things, deals ambiguously with sedition and criminalises defamation, it also empowers the President of the country to ban publications. There is the State Security Act, which is redundant, given the fact that Zambia is no longer threatened by its neighbours, the Anti-Terrorism Act, which is a tool can be subject to abuse by authorities in power, as well as the National Assembly (Powers and Privileges) Act granting unreasonable protection from criticism of law makers. The Zambia country report has 62 key recommendations in the media laws and operations of the public broadcaster, Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC), divided into 9 sections: media laws; the broadcasting landscape; digital migration; broadcast legislation and regulation; ZNBC funding; programming; perceptions of ZNBC; broadcast reforms and key recommendations.
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Public Broadcasting in Africa Series: Zimbabwe
OSISA, AfriMAP and Open Society Media Program
24 November 2009
This report is the result of research that started in 2008 with the aim of collecting, collating and writing up information about regulation, ownership, access, performance as well as prospects for public broadcasting reform in Africa. The Zimbabwe report is part of an 11-country survey of African broadcast media, evaluating compliance with the agreements, conventions, charters and declarations regarding media that have been developed at regional and continental levels in Africa. The research was carried out by Dr Sarah Chiumbu who has worked in different capacities in media in Zimbabwe and currently teaches media studies at Wits University in Johannesburg, and edited by Jeanette Minnie and Hendrik Bussiek.
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Advocacy on Kenya broadcasting reform
26 June 2012
On 26th of June, Grace Githaiga (country researcher) and Jeggan Grey-Johnson met with the Joint Committee on Communications, Broadcasting and Energy at the Kenyan Parliamentary buildings. The discussions focused on the Public Broadcasting in Africa: Kenya report, as well as the crises of Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), general legislative reforms, as well as the more...
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Public Broadcasting in Africa Series: Cameroon
09 August 2011
A validation workshop on Cameroon's Public Broadcasting sector was held in Yaounde on the 9th of August 2011. This workshop was organised by AfriMAP), the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), the Open Society Institute Media Programme (OSIMP) and the African Agency for Information and Communication (Agence Africaine d'Information et de Communication, AIC). The representative of the Minister of Communication Mr. Felix Zogo observed that major reforms highlighted in the recommendations more...
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Launch of report on public broadcasting in Nigeria
01 February 2011
The launching of the Nigeria report in AfriMAP's series on public broadcasting in Africa took place on 1 February 2011 at the Rockview Hotel, Abuja. There were approximately 45-50 people present including Prof. Jinadu, member of the AfriMAP advisory committee.
The Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation chairperson, Engineer Yomi Bolarinwa, addressed the meeting on the realities surrounding the issues of ‘public broadcasting’. more...
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Submission to the National Constitutional Conference of Zambia
27 July 2010
On 27 July 2010, participants from media, government, NGO’s and other international institutions with an interest in broadcast media in Zambia gathered at the Pamodzi Hotel, in Lusaka, to deliberate on the draft report on public broadcasting in Zambia. One of the major outcomes of this gathering was the decision by the stakeholders to submit a list of recommendations based on the consensus of the participants to the government of Zambia as it prepared to table the new constitution in Parliament. more...
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Broadcast media project meeting in Botswana
13 October 2008
On 13 October AfriMAP and OSI’s Media Program convened in Gaborone a meeting on the progress of a jointly run project focused on the state of public service broadcasting in Africa. The meeting gathered some 40 participants — representatives of the African foundations, two network programs and a number of partner organizations. The project includes 11 countries from West, East and Southern Africa; national researchers prepare their studies following the same methodology in each case. Following earlier more...
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Broadcast media survey launched
November 2007
Research has begun for a major new twelve-country survey of public service broadcasting in Africa jointly hosted by AfriMAP and the Open Society Institute’s Network Media Program (NMP). The survey will examine issues of impartiality, independence and quality in public service broadcasting (including not only the public service broadcaster but relevant private media), with a view to producing recommendations for better regulation of the sector, especially in the context of the expected digitalization more...
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Public Broadcasting in Africa: Cameroon 
