Challenges and Entry Points for Regional Media Development Support in Sub Saharan Africa

"Media development is an objective underpinned by the understanding that free, independent and professional media is a cornerstone for democracy and so are the rights to freedom of expression as well as freedom to receive information..."

This report from the Fojo Media Institute focuses on regional media initiatives and challenges in sub-Saharan Africa and, in the interests of contributing to democracy and accountability in the region, provides guidance on possible entry points for support to the media sector on a regional level. The point of departure is that "regional networks can be crucial intermediaries between the national and the global and an important source of learning and capacity development. Regional networks can also drive national reform efforts, especially when they can tap into regional inter-governmental structures and collaborate with civil society organisations." The focus is therefore on strengthening regional media initiatives in the interest of democracy and accountability in sub-Saharan Africa.

The report is the result of a consultative process with media and civil society representatives in Southern, Eastern, Central, and Western sub-Saharan Africa. Three roundtable meetings were held during February 2019 with media experts and media representatives from each of the sub-regions.

Based on the discussions, seven focus areas that are instrumental for the future of quality journalism are investigated and discussed in the report:

• Professionalism - capacity to demand accountability: The report makes the point that basic journalistic skills are still at the heart of holding people in power to account - whether it is done in a digital environment or in a traditional newspaper. However, a lack of professionalism among journalists in most regions in Africa was noted. Reasons cited were inadequate university education, lack of newsroom investment in journalism, poor pay, and "brain drain" from the media to more lucrative fields such as advertising, marketing, and public relations.
• Gender and media: The roundtables confirm a positive trend in the region, with more and more women engaging in the practice of journalism. However, there is still a gender imbalance at management level, and reporting remains skewed towards male perspectives, experts, and sources. Reasons for the latter are discussed, which include the fact that women hold mainly desk positions, and the fact that sexism and societal norms hold women back from challenging stories and fieldwork.
• Financial sustainability and media diversity: Financial sustainability was a challenge for media across all regions in sub-Saharan Africa. In particular, "accountability minded media, be it radio, television, mainstream print or online media newsrooms, smaller independent journalism outlets or civil society watchdogs, are all facing a growing financial crisis due to digital transformation whereby print advertising revenue and circulation income is decreasing as readers/users are migrating to digital platforms." The report highlights some of the reasons for the threats to media pluralism and financial sustainability, which include falling newspaper circulation, mergers and conglomeration, and inadequate investment in journalism and newsrooms.
• Access to information: Although for many countries there are constitutional and increasingly legal guarantees of access to information in the hands of government agencies or public institutions, the implementation of information laws remains problematic.
• Safety of journalists: The situation around the safety of journalists varies from country to country, but, in general, journalists across sub-Saharan Africa are at risk. "Beyond killings, journalists suffer attacks such as kidnappings, enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention and torture. The list also includes threats and intimidation, beatings and confiscation of equipment (especially when covering protests), enforced exile and sexual harassment (particularly against women media professionals)."
• Social media, disinformation, and online harassment: Discussions held at most of the roundtables noted that disinformation is a key issue for democracy in the region today - "disinformation goes from local to regional to global without verification. The increasing spread of disinformation during the last years has left a huge impact on the reliability of not only online news, but on all news outlets. The debate has instead transcended from what to believe, to whom to believe. Lack of available information, largely due to closed and non-transparent governments in Africa, makes it easy for peddlers of disinformation to quote non-existing statistics and mislead people."
• Media self-regulation and ethics: There is also a growing sense in the sub-Saharan Africa region, discussed at the regional roundtables, that although journalists and the media put accountability of power holders at the forefront of their work, they do not themselves exercise it when it comes to their own conduct and work. This has a devastating effect on how journalism is perceived as, for example, unethical practices and poor standards undermine media credibility and diminish public trust in the institution.

The second part of the study focuses on what donors should consider when reviewing how regional media initiatives and processes can contribute to democracy and accountability. The report lists seven recommendations on opportunities or entry points:

1. Step up regional media support - As stated in the report, "Fortunately, the international community seems to be waking up to its responsibility to the independent media sector." Multi-stakeholder meetings have taken place where participants shared ideas on how to confront the crisis and sketched out the elements of a more coordinated and effective response.
2. Focus on integrated, comprehensive regional approaches - The seven focus areas investigated are deeply intertwined with each other, and progress in one specific area needs to be followed by progress in other areas in order to have a sustainable impact on media development and freedom of expression. The report, therefore, recommends an integrated approach to regional development that addresses all aspects.
3. Stimulate regional coalition building - Journalists and publishers alone cannot save journalism. To ensure that African media organisations develop to become viable players in the changing political, technical, and economic landscape, new coalitions need to be built and existing ones strengthened. "Multi-stakeholder coalitions, as well as regional and international networks are an essential pathway to identify and deliver solutions to the complex challenges confronting media systems. These coalitions are striving to promote enabling environments and sustainable sources of journalism, making it possible for the media to provide citizens with the information and analysis they need, when and how they want it. Coalitions can, for example, establish collaborative decentralised media newsrooms and platforms can provide opportunities for media to work in a more strategic and coordinated manner on relevant issues, and to build the political will needed to sustain progress."
4. Support regional innovative initiatives that demand accountability - More capacity should be built to enable research into fast-evolving areas of the media, such as digital, mobile, and social media and the questions concerning freedom, independence, and sustainability that arise from this new and rapidly shifting arena. "Media organisations should move beyond questions of freedom and independence in the political sphere towards finding new and innovative strategies for enhancing the media's capabilities, as well as invigorating citizen participation in the evolving digital landscape - with all the economic, political, and ethical questions that operating in this landscape bring about."
5. Prioritise regional support that promotes financial sustainability for the media - The report suggests a number of ways for media development organisations and donors to deal with media financial sustainability in sub-Saharan Africa, including supporting revenue-generating innovations and encouraging strong media management skills.
6. Strengthen regional support for institution building, supporting self-regulation and ethics - "Confronting the media crisis will require institutions that can fairly and effectively govern and regulate media, including media councils, telecommunications and spectrum regulators, anti-monopoly authorities, self-regulatory bodies, journalist associations, press freedom advocates, blogger associations, universities and training/certifying bodies, and other institutions. With diverse members brought together by a shared interest in protecting the information space, these coalitions can work across borders and institutional barriers, and at multiple levels from the local to the global."
7. Fund regional processes that are anchored in national and local initiatives aiming at building trust and giving voice to the excluded - "While media's and civil society's roles are based on giving voice to citizens, many people see the media and civil society as representatives of power. The result is a lack of trust from large segments of the population. This, according to workshop participants, is especially true for regional support, that often is seen as detached from local and national structures and rather as aiming upwards, feeding into intergovernmental and international structures." Focus should therefore be on how support of a regional approach can build trust and how civil society and media can cooperate in building coalitions to restore trust.