Muhingo Rweyenamu giving a lession about journalism in Africa at the Department for Communication and Journalism at the University of Salzburg in Austria on 22nd of November 2007.
The lesson at the city of Mozart was followed by an intense discussion with the students who very much appreachiated to get first hand information and a teaching from an experineced leading African journalist.

Journalism in Africa at glance

By Muhingo Rweyemamu
Editor Rai Newspaper
New Habari Corporations
P. O Boc 11458
Dar es Salaam

muhingor@yahoo.com

Ladies and gentlemen,

let me start by concluding. My conclusion is that journalism in Africa is like swimming upstream each day. Many African states, including my country Tanzania, went through a single party rule. In single party democracy, the role of journalism was to inform the public on the decisions made by the ruling class. And the editorials should be seen to support the decisions.

Many of African countries embraced multiparty democracy two decades ago. However, the behaviours of several governments are the same of a single party system. Governments in Africa have a lot to hide.

In my country Tanzania, our media industry was made liberal 15 years ago. Before, we had two newspapers; one owned by ruling party, and the other by the government. We had no television station, but one radio station owned by the government. It was only in 1992 when we got the first privately owned newspaper. In 1995, we got the first private TV station in mainland Tanzania. By then, Zanzibar already had has one national owned TV station.

Today Tanzania enjoys more than 400 newspapers, mostly in the national language Kiswahili. Most of these newspapers are based in Tanzanian capital, Dar es Salaam. We have more than 10 TV stations and a dozen of radio stations. It is a remarkable achievement.

If we were to compare the number of media outlets and the intense of press freedom, then one would conclude that Tanzania puts itself at the driver’s seat. But that is not the case. We have several problems which journalists counter day to day. Some government officials normally take journalism for a ride. They are friends when things go normal but foes when the press publishes something against them.

There is one good example which I, my self was involved. The Minister of Land and Settlement Development in Tanzanian, John Magufuli, was a very good friend of journalists. He used to work hard and we used to commend him.

But on 5 July 2006, minister Magufuli, had to institute a criminal proceeding against two editors and one journalist of a privately-owned media house, Habari Corporation. The accused, Mr. John Bwire (chief editor), Mr. Muhingo Rweyemamu (editor and the author of this article), and Mr. Neophilitius Kyaruzi (journalist), were summoned to the police station because the minister had told the police that we threatened to kill him.

The allegations arose from an article in "Rai" newspaper, issued in one of the weeks of July 2006, in which we published information relating to the funds for the construction of one of the roads in western part of the country. The article had questioned the reasons for non-completion of the said road despite the allocation of funds for its construction in the 2005/2006 budget.

But also our paper had solid information that the minister, had ordered his subordinate to sell a government quarter to his girlfriend who was at that time, a student at the University of Dar es Salaam. The houses were to be sold to public servants and the girl wasn’t. In order to ‘kill’ the story, the minister had to file the case so as to intimidate us. He failed to prove to the police the nature of his allegations and the police called off the case.

So you can see how politicians can manipulate issues. He wanted our paper to apologize to him, and stop writing anything-good or bad about him. We said no!

Many of African leaders see journalists as potential troublemakers who must be policed. In some countries, even when certain draconian aspects of the press laws of the one-party era have been replaced with new provisions that are relatively more tolerant of opposition views and of criticisms, often the selective application of the laws, together with the use of extra-legal measures, have been to the detriment of the critical private press, and have made it very difficult for this press to have the professional independence its needs.

In Tanzania for example, the private electronic media is allowed to air their programmes in only 25 per cent of the country. At the same time the language must be either English or Swahili. These languages are foreign to many dwellers in remote areas.

But thank God at least Tanzania is a haven of peace. Things are different in countries like Uganda, Kenya Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Algeria, Sudan even South Africa.

In Somalia for example, being journalist can be a sin punishable to death under the Kangaroo court. It depends which part of the town you are caught. “Who is that? Journalist! Kill him”

Just last month, Human Rights Watch reported from Somalia the death of Basur Nur Gedi who was shot at close range by two gun men on October 19. Gedi was coming out of a cafe. The murder of Gedi, the acting manager of Shabelle Media radio, marks the eighth journalist to die in Somalia in 2007. Nearly a dozen have also been wounded.

Although there is no killings of journalists so far in Burundi, but the situation is tense. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) was last year at logger head with the government over the repression of journalists.

These journalists had issued critical reports of an attempted coup in the country. Three of them were jailed and four others summoned by the prosecutor in the capital city of Bujumbura in less than two weeks in relation to their report.

Corneille Nibaruta, director of radio station Bonesha FM, was summoned to the prosecutor's office on 1 December 2006. This man went missing for four weeks.

On 29th November, the director of the radio station Isanganiro, Matthias Manirakiza, was jailed for allegedly broadcasting information which “could disturb public and security order". The accusation stems from a report aired on his radio station on August 29, 2006, on the imminent attack of the presidential palace and the residence of Hussein Rajabu, the then president of the ruling party CNDD-FDD.

Earlier on November 22nd the editor-in-chief of Radio Publique Africaine (RPA), Serge Nibizi, and the journalist Domitille Kiramvu were summoned by the prosecutor and arrested for ‘threatening state security’ by broadcasting information on a case under judicial investigation.

Therefore if you look at the economic, political, institutional and professional constraints confronting African journalists, you may conclude that African journalism is like swimming upstream most of the time given all the hurdles they face in many countries of the continent.

Amongst these are the tendencies by African governments towards excessive politicization of the media institutions, making it very difficult for journalists to reconcile the government’s expectations with their professional beliefs, or with the expectations of the public.

Mali has a constitutional guarantee of equal access by all citizens to state-owned media. That’s a good point. However, its good point is in contrast to the country's definition of defamation. In Mali, defamation is a criminal offence. Bad enough, the "crime" is extended to any badmouthing of the army, head of state, members of parliament, civil servants, and foreign governments or diplomats.

In Tanzania, The Newspaper Act of 1976, caries a section dealing with defamation. Though defamation is a civil offence in Tanzania, this section is painful to both journalists and publishers. If defamed, a person is free to demand any amount of money to be compensated under this law. One politician was paid one billion Tanzanian shillings (800,000 Euro) after the paper was found guilt of misquoting him.

This is not the case when the politicians lie or cheat.

Zambia has the same kind of "insult laws", dating back to the British penal code. One could say that certain colonial regulations and laws were directly taken over by the new elites to turn them again against the local population.

In contrast, and standing out from most other countries on the continent, Ghana scrapped similar controls several years ago.

Confidentiality is another problematic area in the African media laws. Ethically a journalist is required to protect the confidentiality of his source. However, in many cases, African courts may force a journalist to mention his source of information in court. In this matter, Mozambique is the only country on the continent that provides protection, in its Constitution, to journalists defending the confidentiality of their sources.

Ethiopia is one of the good examples of bad examples of media law. Her press law includes penalties for forgetting to publish the name of the editor and proprietor or a news-agency source. And anguish betides Ethiopian publishers who fail to submit a copy to the government within 24 hours of publication.

Not all is bad in the African continent. We have some good examples of good practices concerning media laws. Senegal, for example, has a law that gives journalists the right to refuse any instruction that contradicts the ethics of their practice. In addition, Senegalese journalists can't be forced to express an opinion contrary to their convictions. The same law says that journalists cannot accept direct or indirect instructions from advertisers.

Any paper about African journalism is incomplete if it doesn’t touch factors such as widespread job insecurity, poor salaries and poor working conditions of most journalists.

When I was in Congo DR in 1996, in Goma town, one of the broadcasting station was using a dilapidated house as its newsroom. In order to go live on air, some reporters had to use a bed sheet to cushion their counterparts who were on air reading the bulletin. In another town of Kisangani, I found a printing press with one typewriter and duplicating machine. Newspaper vendors were waiting outside the printing press to take the duplicated newspapers for sale in Kisangani streets.

Financial difficulties and the uncertainties of life in the age of flexible mobility have only compounded the predicaments of African journalism.

In their entire struggle, African journalism has done much to help the suffering poor. In Tanzania, the press has taken the leading role to pressurise the government to deal with corruption elements in its circles. And one could courageously say that if the government is not taking stern measures, the current journalism in our country could lead a revolt.

I kindly ask you the journalists in the developed world, to help the African society by telling your leaders and big multinational companies in your society to stop collaborating with corrupt officials in the developing world.

One would wonder for example why people involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS are getting richer while the situation of infection on the continent is getting worse.

We All know that the help and aid coming to Africa is not reaching the intended communities. People in the offices of AIDS organisations and Non governmental organisations are taking advantages. Unfortunately, the very people in Europe and Northern America who are responsible with the distribution of money are mum as if they do not see what is happening in the third world.

In my eleven years of writing stories on the epidemic, I have found that as more funds become available to combat the spate, monitoring becomes a challenge since graft is always behind the AIDS Money. The donor community should have this in mind and track the money all the way to Africa.

But even tracking these monies is often an exercise in frustration. It becomes frustrating because people, who are involved in the theft or abuse of money, are those an average person would suspect. Be frank to your self, and tell me, what would you do, if your young brother comes to you accusing a specific person that after the morning service, he found that person breaking the safe custody of the church, taking away the money for his own ends? And that that person was the bishop who led the morning service. In Africa, many Christian families would wipe the child and order the boy to ‘reduce the size of his mouth’. I do not know what you would do in Europe. We have different approaches of saying bad things on people with integrity in our societies.

It needs a brave person to open up his finger and point to a bishop. The African journalists especially in Tanzania have started to point their fingers to the suspects. Kindly help us to point fingers to those collaborating with African thieves. Our belief is that a thief will remain a thief in any society, regardless of his position in his own society.

To mention Tanzania I do not mean that our country is exceptional in the misuse of the AIDS money. In recent years, there have been a number of high-profile AIDS-related corruption cases in Africa. Kenya's National AIDS Control Council, for example, has been plagued with allegations of fraud and corruption. Three years ago, its director, Margaret Gachara, was removed from her position after she used faked documents to garner a salary almost seven times above the norm for someone in her position. Several months earlier, the government cut off funding for four fraudulent AIDS organisations and began investigating 10 others that took donor money but did no actual work.

South Africa also has been home to a number of misappropriation cases. In 1996, then-health minister Nkosazana Zuma was reprimanded for a R14 million project to create a play about HIV/AIDS known as Sarafina II.

The US president this year asked the Congress to approve an additional $30 billion for HIV/AIDS prevention, for care, and for treatment over the next five years. Sceptics; (I am one of them), fear whether half of this money will reach the intended poor and sick person. There are several reasons for scepticism. First, a number of people involved in the administration of the money are corrupt. But second, misuse of AIDS money gets little attention, in part because stake holders involved generally do not want to highlight problems for fear of scaring off donors.
I am not talking from air. South Africa's Treatment Action Campaign, for example, recently acknowledged that it previously limited its public statements about funding abuses by the National Association of People Living with AIDS (NAPWA) in order to 'avoid creating confusion or further disunity among people with HIV/AIDS and the organisations that represent them.'

Many thanks go to Fatima Hassan; the attorney with the Johannesburg-based AIDS Law Project. She filled a request with the Auditors General, requesting an investigation into NAPWA’s finance. She said: I quote: 'With HIV/AIDS, and the amount of money that is being spent, there has to be greater transparency and openness. It's one thing to give money, but there has to be proper assessment.

This statement by Fatima, reminds me the wrangle in Tanzania, specifically in Makete District that continued for two years. I am not here to dig up the graves. However it suffices to say that the Makete lesson has strengthened all of us. We now all know that it is not a question of simply handing over the money with no questions asked, but drowning persons involved in reams of paperwork.

I am invited here in Austria by the Lutheran Mission of Austria (EAWM). For them, drowning custodians of their money in reams of paperwork has been their tradition. And to them, the issue is that their reams were too tough for the people used in soft procedures which open the door for corruption. Through this audience of the Salzburg University Department for Communication I want to assure EAWM that they are known in Tanzania for their toughness.

As a Tanzanian, and a journalist who have been following with keen interest in the situation in Makete, I have confidence in this organization. And this is the case for the clean government officials, but also for the corrupt people holding different offices. What I want from you young journalists in the developing world is to help organisations in your countries to be responsible when they collect money from the poor Europeans to send them to the poor Africans. It is bad to humankind and to God for any responsible person whether in Europe or in Africa to track and hijack these monies and use them for unintended purposes.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have said many things; some of them are confusing. On our way from Munster, German yesterday, my friend, Dr. Rainer Brandl reminded me the words of one philosopher. This is Alfred Einstein. This professor once said that if you drink in the cup of science, you will become an atheist. However, he said, when you drink to the bottom of the cup, you will become a believer again. Let me conclude by saying that what I have told you about Africa, is like drinking from a cup of Africa. You may find many things confusing. Sitting here in Austria, you may not be able to understand how a newsroom in Goma can operate the way I told you. By this end, I kindly ask you to spare some money for you so that you may come to the continent and drink to the bottom of Africa by seeing by yourself the environment in which we operate.