Political Space and Crackdowns

An independent press clearly requires a measure of political space—that is, regime tolerance—to emerge and take hold. Regime tolerance can of course be a shifting and ephemeral phenomenon, and crackdowns in the 1990s have at times taken bizarre turns. In one extreme case, an outspoken Uganthn journalist, Teddy Seezi Cheeye, reportedly was framed by authorities in early 1996.

Cheeye, editor of the weekly Uganda Confidential, was arrested after giving a ride to a female hitchhiker and charged with kidnapping with intent to force the woman to perform oral sex. In the ruling acquitting Cheeye, whose publication had reported about corruption and abuses in govenunent, the presiding magistrate said the charge was "a frame-up engineered by powerful and corrupt people whom Cheeye had long been criticizing in his journalistic work."91

The Daily Observer in Liberia, which was published during the 1980s by Kenneth Best, was ordered closed for a month in 1983 after displaying on its front page a photograph of two trucks stuck in ruts on a muddy roadway outside the capital Monrovia. The Liberian authorities in announcing the newspaper's suspension, said that the photograph threatened to scare off prospective international investors. Best pointed afterward to the futility of the punishment, noting that closing the Daily Observer did nothing to improve Liberia's rutted roadways. 92

Best, who was jailed four times in Liberia and saw his newspaper closed five times, is one of several African journalists to have gained a measure of international prominence after becoming targets of regime repression. Best, once called "Africa's most persecuted journalist,"93 also ran a daily newspaper in the Gambia during the early l990s. He was expelled in 1994, in the aftermath of a coup d 'état that toppled a nominally democratic government.

Other often-harassed and arrested African journalists who have similarly gained prominence include Pius N. Njawd in Cameroon and Fred M'membe in Zambia. Njawd is editor and publication director of Le Messager, which has been called "the most confrontational" independent newspaper in Cameroon.94 M'membe is managing director of the Post in Zambia and perhaps faces more legal actions because of his newspaper's reporting than any African journalist.95

Njawd, M'membe, and other often-prosecuted journalists tend to be celebrated abroad as heroic figures 96 who stand up to brazen government repression and who endure sentences in jail. They have been described, for example, as "some of the most courageous and genuinely public-spirited people"97 in Africa. At home, however, these journalists are sometimes controversial news figures in their own right. M'membe, for example, has engaged in a bitter, very personal dispute with Frederick Chiluba, Zambia's president. Chiluba has asserted that M'membe (whose background is in accounting) was ill-suited for journalism. M'membe replied to the president in an open letter, urging Chiluba to waive executive immunity that shields him from lawsuits "'so that I can commence litigation against you for your malicious lies against me.'" 98

M'membe's outspoken brand of journalism was critiqued by Index on Censorship in 1995. The account suggested that the Post was "in real danger of colluding in its own demise" because of its attacks on political figures. The Index article also called attention to a statement by M'membe that seemed to suggest cavalier indifference to accuracy. "The press does get things wrong, but so do politicians and governments," M'membe was quoted as saying. "Over the last three years I have written more than 200 editorials. They might all have been wrong, but that does not bother me much. What bothers me is the prospect of not being able to write another wrong editorial.'"100

Although the Index report was indirect in criticizing the Post, M'membe was clearly stung. In a letter published in Index, he assailed the article "untruthful and potentially libelous" and said his newspaper had lost just one of more than 100 criminal and civil lawsuits brought against it. "Surely," M'membe wrote, "'this record cannot be achieved by journalists committed to publishing 'blatant untruths.'"101

The exchange was illustrative of yet another gap in studies of the press in Africa. Sandbrook, among others, has indicted the independent press for often mixing "unsubstantiated charges with their hard news," and for indulging in exaggerated reporting.102 Such criticism, however, is typically undifferentiated and often impressionistic, rarely supported by more than a few anecdotes. A systematic examination of the frequency and extent of lapses and shortcomings among media practitioners in Africa would be very revealing. It certainly would be groundbreaking. In pursuing such an examination, rival newspapers would no doubt be a useful resource, as they tend to call attention to journalistic lapses and indiscretions. La Voie, for example, reported in mid-1997 that the entire press-run of one of its competitors, Soir Info, had been sold to the subject of an unflattering article 103 The government daily in Benin La Nation called attention to a similarly dubious episode in l991.104

SURMOUNTING THE IMPEDIMENTS

Just as failings of the practitioners of independent journalism in Africa often are treated superficially in scholarly studies, factors that account for the resilience of the non-official press are often overlooked. The focus on constraints is prominent in scholarly literature; little examination, however, has been undertaken to understand how the constraints can be surmounted.

Studies and analyses of the African press often emphasize financial hard-ships,105 but most of them neglect to assess reasons enabling some independent newspapers to survive. Those that do die out often are replaced by newer titles. There has been, moreover, a gradual, if little-recognized, movement in some countries, such as Benin and Côte d'Ivoire, from weekly or fortnightly newspa-pers to daily publications. Indeed, one of the best newspapers in francophone West Africa is Le Jour, an Ivorian daily that began publishing in December 1994.

While few detailed studies have been conducted about the business side of Africa's independent press, there are indications about how newspapers confront and surmount capital shortages and other financial constraints. Some of these methods appear to undercut the detachment and independence from govermnent. African journalists are at times circumspect and vague in describing the sources of support. Kenneth Best, for example, described the founding of the Daily Observer in Liberia this way: "It was with the help of a few relatives, friends and the grace of the good Lord that the prophetic voice was born in February l981.'" 106

Wealthy nationals represent a notable share of the owners of and investors in the independent press.107 Bruno Sodehu, publisher of the Beninese weekly Le Forum de Ia Semaine made a fortune abroad. 108 Ismaël Soumanou was helped by his well-to-do mother in starting La Gazette du Golfe in Benin.109

Some newspapers are operated as journalists' cooperatives,110 in which shares are held among the reporters, editors, and other employees. M'membe launched the Post in 1991 after raising money from twenty-seven shareholders.111 Investments by multinational media companies are rare, however. Unlike Central and Eastern Europe where large Western media companies acquired leading newspapers after the collapse of Marxist rule, few newspapers in Africa are foreign-owned. Some countries, such as Côte d'Ivoire, severely restrict foreign ownership of domestic newspapers.112

Political parties and well-to-do politicians are other sources of financial support, although such backing of course may mean close ties to partisan politics. In Benin, the independent daily Le Citoyen began appearing in June 1996, less than three months after Nicéphore Soglo lost reelection to the presidency. Le Citoyen's publisher is Christian Vieyra, Soglo's brother-in-law. Many newspapers begun by political parties and candidates for elected office are short-lived, appearing just a few times before election day.113

Occasionally, newspapers are recipients of international assistance programs. In Mali, the independent weekly, l'Aurore, has received financial support from the European Development Fund.114 Cooperation between and among newspapers in neighboring states in Africa has been vital. Haské, a weekly in Niger, was typeset for a time at the La Gazette du Golfe in Benin, where costs were lower.

Some independent newspapers have long clamored for direct and indirect state subsidies. The Beninese non-official press, for example, has long sought reduced postal and telephone rates, tax relief, and lower printing rates. 115 Four Senegalese newspapers accepted direct financial aid from the state in 1990 in the form of an emergency grant of $33,000 each. The funds were intended to offset increased printing costs.116 One commentator has characterized accepting such assistance as tantamount to driving "the independent press back into the arms of the state."117 Perhaps. But the independent press in Senegal ranked in the 1990s as among the strongest in sub-Saharan Africa. Taking assistance from the state does not necessarily mean compromising independence. After all, direct subsidies to marginal newspapers are not uncommon in France and Sweden. The press in the United States has long benefited from special postal rates and antitrust exemptions to preserve newspaper competition.

In any event, the emergent independent newspapers in Africa have tapped a range of options for financial support in the face of constricted readership and limited sources of advertising revenue. Financial difficulties certainly characterize many, if not most, ventures in non-official newspapering in Africa. But so does a keen measure of resourcefulness—a resourcefulness that may at times seem tinged with desperation. Diégou Bailly, founder of the Ivorian daily Le Jour, has said that the independent press has no option but to persist: "We are condemned to succeed." 118

OPTIMISM, AGAIN

Running quietly through the scholarly literature is a modest strain of optimism and high hopes about the press in Africa. Because the constraints confronting the press have proved so powerful, the high hopes have been routinely dashed over the years. For example, Dennis Wilcox, writing in the mid-1970s, speculated that the press in Africa would attract larger reading audiences much like the penny press in the United States did, beginning in the 1830s.119 Richard Hall, a former editor of the Times of Zambia, was even more expansive, predicting in 1968 that "over the next two decades, economic developments should produce larger consumer markets [in Africa] and consequently more advertising; literacy will vastly increase and there will be millions more readers wanting material they can ponder, to supplement the ephemeral radio bulletins; finally, it cannot be taken for granted that African leaders will always retain their rigid adherence to the one-party system and the direction of ideas."120

So the dangers of advancing optimistic forecasts about the trajectory of Africa's press are very real. Nonetheless, the trend established during the 1990s encourages renewed optimism. The independent press in sub-Saharan Africa has shown itself to be deceptively dynamic-fragile and vulnerable to repression, but gritty and resilient at the same time. As the next chapters will examine, the ethos of independent journalism in Africa is durable, capable of reemerging after prolonged periods of repression and autocratic rule, and infused with the potential to evolve and expand.

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NOTES