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Africa Media Review
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Mass media policy
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- Description:
- This is an analytical appraisal of the making of a vibrant media industry in South Africa. The author commends the government effort to repeal oppressive legal regimes that served the defunct apartheid system in stifling press freedom and fundamental human rights. While extolling the virtues of the new democratic culture in the country, the paper also underscores the centrality of the press, especially the media, in nurturing and safeguarding the new plural political system. The author argues strongly that the formation of a more media friendly communication policy, to create a final and rapid break with the divisive past, is imperative. The paper enjoins the new government of national unity to devise comprehensive communication policy and profound training packages for journalists to strengthen and professionalize the media industry, as an instrument of national development. It contends that democratic growth requires a free and authoritative press to provide a forum for national debate, where people can exchange critical and competitive views, to enable them to make rational or informed choices on various matters critical to national cohesion. This, the author says, is only possible if the new communication policy establishes efficient information feedback mechanisms. The paper also highlights various legislations put in place to ensure that national interest is catered for in programming in a liberalised broadcast media. The issues of ownership and media accessibility to the poor are discussed.
- Date Issued:
- 1997-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review
- Description:
- The African National Congress (ANC) has been working towards establishing a blueprint for transition to a post-apartheid South Africa since the drawing up of the 'constitutional guidelines' in Lusaka in 1988. In all these deliberations, the political, land and economic policies have taken precedence, while In the area of social reform, housing, education and welfare have featured prominently. Detailed attention to the media has been a later development. Even so, media remains something of a poor cousin relegated to a lower order of priority while other areas of concern are better articulated. On 23/24th November, 1991, the Department of Information and Publicity (DIP) of the ANC convened a meeting of approximately 300 delegates to discuss the drafting of a media policy. The outcome of this gathering was a document entitled, Resolutions adopted at the DIP National Seminar (ANC, 1991). The Resolutions were prefaced by a 'Draft Media Charter' which was also the result of the November deliberations. The Resolutions and the Charter were adopted by the ANC's National Executive Committee on 13th January, 1992, and remain the key expositions of ANC media policy. This paper examines that policy in light of the potential and powerful impact of the broadcast media.
- Date Issued:
- 1994-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review
- Description:
- This paper discusses some of the constraints on efforts to formulate comprehensive mass media policies in Nigeria. It reviews the constitutional and political environment of the mass media and journalistic practice in Nigeria and identifies legal, economic, historical, linguistic and cultural factors which impede the development of the mass media and constrain their performance. It argues that antagonisms between politicians and journalists have led to government nationalization and control of the mass media thus marginalizing the role of journalists as watchdogs on government conduct of public affairs. It calls for a redefinition of the role of the media in Nigeria more in accord with its history, culture and aspirations and away from the present western mode which only fans conflicts between the government and the mass media. That is the direction an appropriate mass media policy for Nigeria should take.
- Date Issued:
- 1991-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review
- Description:
- This paper presents the government of Uganda's perspective of professionalization of journalism and the liberalisation of the media in the country. It is apologetic to the restrictions on the freedom of the press in Africa, for some unspecified conditions peculiar to African States. Some encouraging developments within the media industry, especially the liberalisation of the airwaves and the introduction of a degree course in journalism at the Makerere University, are discussed. However, the author mildly criticizes the suspect Media and Broadcast Councils whose composition are dominated by people handpicked by the Minister for Communications. The Media Council is empowered to license and discipline journalists and the media institutions. The question raised by many is whether the Councils are not merely a cathartic strategy by the government calculated to pacify an aggressive media that had started challenging the government's continued stronghold on the industry despite its claim that it's democratic. Whatever the case, as a watchdog in a democracy, the media's independence is critical. This is why the author is calling for a more comprehensive communication policy in Uganda. The paper raises questions over the wisdom of subjecting the Councils to the mercy of a government grant and some obscure "acceptable sources" for their cash, arguing that this will in the long run thoroughly compromise the independence of the two bodies. The paper raises the freedom of information provision, albeit with a grain of salt. It points out, for example, that the provision is contradicted by the Official Secrets Act, which make it difficult for government sources to divulge information to journalists. In conclusion, it ask the government to address the issue of media ownership in Uganda, using relevant statutes, with a view to making them accessible to the poor. To argue this case, the writer adopts the theoretical framework of the dependency theorists, who invites developing (periphery) countries to dissociate themselves culturally and economically from the developed (core) countries as the only means of achieving their true independence.
- Date Issued:
- 1997-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review
- Description:
- This paper examines the relationship between the state and the mass media in post colonial Kenya. Proceeding from the premise that this relationship has been characterized by uneasiness and conflict, the paper seeks to identify the major causes of this conflict. It provides insights into why the conflictual relationship has not changed much since the advent of the democratization process. The paper also examines the strategies used by the state to deal with the mass media. The central argument here is that the relationship between the mass media and the state in Kenya is unlikely to improve unless two conditions are met. First, there must be commitment on the part of the state to democratic governance and a recognition of the legitimate role of the media in the promotion and protection of democracy. Secondly, there must be a vibrant civil society that is capable of obstructing attempts by the state to encroach on the rights and freedoms of the public, including the freedom of the press. The political orientation in state society relations in Kenya since independence has been characterized by a determination by the state to control society. This approach, which is underpinned by an authoritarian ideology, resulted in a culture of fear rather than trust and respect for the state.
- Date Issued:
- 1995-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review