The media in southern Africa

U-turn on the long walk to freedom

Twitchy governments are making life a misery for independent journalists

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Readers' comments



Actually, the Post, in Zambia, is not equally critical of all the parties. It is now clearly and heavily biased towards the Patriotic Front which it never attacks with the venom it reserves for the party in power, the Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD), and the UPND, another opposition party. The Patriotic Front is headed by Michael Sata, a man the Post used to accuse of all sorts of corrupt acts and violence when he was part of the government under the MMD. Now he can do no wrong in their eyes.

Another funny thing: the Post have hitherto had a soft spot for South African minister, Blade Nzimande, who is leading the government's drive for regulation of the media ( What say they now? Will they still fête him when he next visits Zambia?


@ wrbigNbrUL - great idea - how do you guarantee that the CCMA will be free of government intervention in the South African context?


@ flyingpiggy093 - so you believe the population of South Africa are like children that have to be shielded from the truth? Must be shocking to find out that Santa Clause doesn't really deliver presents to the entire world in one night. More shocking to find out that the president of South Africa only completed Primary School and doesn't have a secondary school education let alone post secondary.... or that corruption is rife? And pray do tell how does one decide that South Africa is mature enough to face the brunt of the free media?


@ Nefretiiti: please double check your facts.

Julian Assange was not held without charge - charges were laid against him and he willingly turned himself into the British authorities. And he was NOT denied bail - in fact he is currently out on bail. True it took a while to grant bail which is a common issue. The legalities of bail application are based on whether the person is a flight risk. His initial bail application was turned down as there were not enough guarantees of him not taking flight. Once the guarantees were in place - he was granted bail.

There may be a possibility that his charges in Sweden may be politically motivated but that is purely speculation at this stage. In fact making the link to the US government and the sexual charges would be stupid only because: if Julian Assange faces trial in Sweden his chances of being extradited to the US are greatly diminished where as if he stays in the UK (under the special treaty between the UK and the USA) he runs a higher risk of being extradited to the US. So if he does not want to face charges in the US, it would be in his best interests not to fight the Swedish charges and go to court in Sweden.

As for press freedom - WikiLeaks is not the press. Also note the US government does not have any laws to prosecute foreign nationals for disclosing diplomatic secrets - so the US has no real will to chase Julian Assange and as you may have noticed there have been no attempt by the US government to gag, extradite or prosecute Julian Assange .

His "revelations" still continue on a regular basis and the US lets it go.

In fact Julian Assange is probably a good example of how the current US government will restrain itself from attempting any unethical gagging methods.

Please get your facts right before posting on an upstanding site such as the Economist.


I think the author has a short memory. The press in South Africa was never all that free. Those that did dare to criticize the government, such as Die Vrye Weekblad, were hounded until they were shut down!

Also, sometimes the press needs to do a bit of introspection. They might just be the target of government actions because of irresponsible publishing. A case in point is the recent action against the publisher of Die Huisgenoot. There quite a number more.

And the press' response is that they will self-regulate. Sorry - not good enough! They have had decades of opportunity and have never done a good job. They are too keen on selling newspapers - and stuff the victims of their mistakes!

I am for press freedom. I am all for transparency. However, we do need some form of control over the press to protect the innocent. Something like the CCMA in South Africa where I can take the press to task for irresponsible publishing! Without having to go through months of expensive legal battles - which makes it extremely difficult for me to take the press to task in a meaningful manner!


@ JollyRogerII : you are spot on. Julian Assange was held for days without any formal charges filed against him and on wierd claims of sexual assaualt, even being denied bail. Why? Because he released info the US governmen deemed to be sensitive. So the ability of government to pick and choose what info should be made public or not is not the only practiced in Africa. I am all for press freedom, 100%. And that doesn't exist in many places. I then don't see who has the right to go around classifying whose country has free press and whose doesn't.


The idea to let the public know about government secrets is a admirable trait for a government. However, for the South African government to allow such a thing is moving too fast for the political structure there. The UK implemented this idea to let the people know what is going on in government and the statistics of social expenditures, but the UK is a much stronger state than South Africa. The South African government is not ready to have the people criticize every little gripe they have with the government, and not ready to deal with the people in such a high level. Right now, it is the right thing to do, censoring the papers from releasing state secrets, but later on, if/when South Africa gets to the level of being a stable society and a strong democracy, then the people can have the right to understand and access state secrets.


Repressive governments that do not have much valid support must resort to oppression of media and people to maintain their corrupt violent regimes in power. Zimbabwe is a good example. The voters, in face of extreme violence and repression, voted Mandela out of office. Yet there he is still wielding power with his vicious criminal henchmen.


@ Njola the third: "...even Wikileaks is rumoured to be a CIA front website..." that is a very wild rumour.

However, your statement: "..all forms of media is accountable to someone.." is partly true. There is a whole concept on journalism and accountability. Some media outlets have a natural right-wing bias and others have a natural left-wing bias. The two are needed, for balance, and the literate public can make up its mind as to what it will believe.

But don't use WikiLeaks and the Economist as an excuse to justify Zimbabwe's and South Africa's government's clamp down on the media. The fundamental is simple: it doesn't matter if you are the US government trying to clamp down on WikiLeaks, or if you are the Economist criticising WikiLeaks, or if you are the Zimbabwean government, or the South African government clamping down on the media.

Any attempt to clamp down on the media is wrong!!! Trying to justify it is a feeble attempt to be anti-western.

Only an independent media can make government accountable.

Governments must learn that some media outlets are going to sensationalise a story and even print misleading stories. Governments must have faith that their people will not be fooled when the media shows bias.

If one accepts that it is important for Government to control the media to prevent any form of "subversion" then one has to accept that Government sees it people as foolish children that can be swayed by the thoughts of some writer/editor.

Any attack on the media is a clear sign that the government truly has something to hide.


@JollyRoger, For the past couple of weeks, I've actually seen several articles by the Economist criticizing US handling of the WikiLeaks saga. I think you invented your "facts" to make your point appear valid, or rather attack the publication on flimsy grounds. Give credit where its due.

Njola the third

There is a myth that exists and it is called "independent media" all forms of media is accountable to someone even if its not the state that is why even Wikileaks is rumoured to be a CIA front website as key information about the misdeeds at the Fed which they had access to where not shown. And with every passing week the journalism in this magazine hits new lows.

Aly-Khan Satchu

The State was once like Gulliver, The Citizens were like the Lilliputians. However, the Connected Century is upending that Dispensation. Where, once I waited eagerly for my weekly Blue Aerogram to arrive, Today I am always on always connected. And The Arrival of the Mobile Phone and in its Slipstream, the Arrival of the Mobile Internet has upended this. We have entered a New Normal. In Parts of Africa, its a Laboratory Experiment. Take Kenya, where the Undersea Cables have accelerated this Process and the Curve has turned parabolic.

Old Media is still operating at the Instruction of the State. However, The Citizen practically anywhere in the World is now connected and the Information Stream has morphed into a Tsunami. This Debate and Conversation is happening outside the Old Media Architecture, its happening on New Disjunctive and ultimately Democratic Uber Platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

The Reaction we are witnessing in Southern Africa is a Losing Strategy and not unlike King Canute who ultimately had little success holding back the Sea.

We have entered a New Normal and just as The British Courts eventually worked out that holding the Person of Assange was effectively irrelevant and making a Monkey out of the Machine, so will these States eventually capitulate to a Wave thats only gotten started.

Aly-Khan Satchu


Hmmm, let me get this right, in the same edition where The Economist is supportive of the US's outrage at Wikileaks, it's critical of PROPOSED South African plans to jail people who release official state secrets. Sounds a bit two-faced to me.


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