No Countries with Fully Free Press in Southern Africa for First Time in 15 Years
JOHANNESBURG, South-Africa, May 28, 2010/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Namibia and South Africa saw noteworthy declines in press freedom in 2009, according to Freedom of the Press 2010, Freedom House’s annual survey of media freedom. Both countries, relative bright spots in the region, were downgraded in rating from Free to Partly Free. Freedom House released detailed reports on the two countries in Johannesburg today as part of a joint event with the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) and the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism about media trends in Southern Africa.
“While the events of 2009 in both South Africa and Namibia are worrying in their own right, of greater concern is their embodiment of larger, longer-term deteriorations of press freedom in these two Southern African democracies,” said Karin Karlekar, managing editor of Freedom of the Press. “As two influential players in the region, we are also concerned about what these declines mean for press freedom in the rest of Sub Saharan Africa.”
After exhibiting steady improvements since the end of apartheid, South Africa has been consistently ranked Free by the survey since 1995. Recent years, however, have seen a number of worrying trends, including more hostile government rhetoric toward the media, increasing political interference in the editorial independence of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), the use of gag orders and other legal mechanisms to restrict reporting, and concentration of ownership in the print and broadcast sectors. In 2009, further encroachments on the independence of the SABC and the passage of the controversial Film and Publications Act resulted in a negative score change of two points, which moved the country’s status to Partly Free.
A four-point downgrade in Namibia’s score also resulted in a status change from Free to Partly Free and also stemmed largely from increased government intolerance of criticism. Pressure on the media by the ruling SWAPO party has driven growing restrictions on both state-run and private media, including sometimes vitriolic government rhetoric and interference with programming decisions at the Namibian Broadcast Corporation. In 2009, ruling party officials forced the cancellation and subsequent pacification of the NBC’s popular morning call-in programs, and the broadcaster cancelled its policy of allocating free airtime to political parties ahead of the November 2009 elections. This was, in part, the cause of heavily biased coverage in the election. Namibia had been ranked Free by the survey since 2005.
“Unfortunately, these downgrades leave Southern Africa without any countries rated in the Free category for the first time since 2006,” continued Karlekar. Botswana, another promising performer, was downgraded to Partly Free in 2006 and showed continued declines in 2009.
According to the survey, the average regional score for Sub-Saharan Africa declined more than in any other region in the world in 2009. With only 5 out of 48 countries in the region now rated Free, only 10% of the population in the region have access to a fully free press.
Draft country reports are currently available for South Africa, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Freedom House is an independent watchdog organization that supports democratic change, monitors the status of freedom around the world, and advocates for democracy and human rights.
SOURCE
Freedom House
