Journalism blocked in more than 130 countries, Africa being dangerous

By Osoro Nyawangah, MUSOMA Tanzania

The 2021 World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) shows that journalism, the main vaccine against disinformation, is completely or partly blocked in 73% of the 180 countries ranked by the organisation.

Ugandan journalist Moses Bwayo was shot in the face by police last month, part of a Ugandan government crackdown on journalists covering the presidential election

This year’s Index, which evaluates the press freedom situation in 180 countries and territories annually, shows that journalism, which is arguably the best vaccine against the virus of disinformation, is totally blocked or seriously impeded in 73 countries and constrained in 59 others, which together represent 73% of the countries evaluated.

These countries are classified as having “very bad,” “bad” or “problematic” environments for press freedom, and are identified accordingly in black, red or orange on the World Press Freedom map.

The Index data reflect a dramatic deterioration in people's access to information and an increase in obstacles to news coverage. The coronavirus pandemic has been used as grounds to block journalists’ access to information sources and reporting in the field. Will this access be restored when the pandemic is over?

The data shows that journalists are finding it increasingly hard to investigate and report sensitive stories, especially in Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

With reporters attacked and arrested, their incomes falling and media undermined by disinformation and draconian laws, the coronavirus pandemic has compounded the huge difficulties for journalism in sub-Saharan Africa, where 23 of the 48 countries (two more than in 2020) are now marked as red or black on the World Press Freedom map, meaning the situation is classified as bad or very bad.

The coronavirus crisis has made it evident that African journalists’ role in nurturing democracies built on fact-based and pluralist public debate is still far from assured.

Instead of allowing journalists to do their job of reporting the news, a role that is more essential than ever during such a crisis, authorities sought to control coverage of the pandemic and often facilitated or even directly contributed to hostility and mistrust towards those trying to provide objective, researched reporting.

RSF registered three times as many arrests and attacks on journalists in sub-Saharan Africa between 15 March and 15 May 2020 as it did during the same period in 2019.

Many countries, including the continent’s most advanced democracies like Tanzania, resorted to force and legislation to prevent journalists from working. While reporting on lockdown measures, one journalist ended up with a broken leg in the Democratic Republic of Congo (149th), a woman reporter was hit by rubber bullets in South Africa (32) and a WebTV director spend 11 months in prison in Rwanda (156) before finally being released in March 2021.

Tanzania (124), coverage of the impact of the coronavirus crisis was almost impossible because of the authorities’ denial of the facts.

The country refused to order vaccines, as did Burundi (147), whose president, Pierre Nkunrinziza, died a few weeks after his wife contracted Covid-19.

Former Tanzania’s president, John Magufuli who died suddenly in March 2021, maintained pandemic information blackout for refusing to believe the facts.

He called the virus a “western conspiracy” suggesting that Tanzania (124) had kept it at bay “by force of prayer”.

An all-out press freedom predator ever since he became president in 2015, Magufuli used the same repressive methods on the pandemic as he did with other subjects he wanted hushed up, organizing a total information blackout.

The authorities have provided no epidemiological data since April 2020. Journalists and media outlets trying to cover the story have been threatened, arrested or suspended. Under new regulations, publishing unapproved information about an “outbreak of a deadly or contagious disease” or reproducing content from foreign media without prior permission became punishable by imprisonment.

This surge in abuses served as a reminder that African journalists are only too often regarded as enemies to be controlled or suppressed, rather than allies who can help address contemporary challenges and crises.

The marked increase in abuses is reflected in a 13% deterioration in the Index’s violations indicator for the region in the past year and is one of the reasons why Africa remains the world’s most dangerous continent for journalists in 2021, according to RSF analysis.

Acknowledgment of the key role investigative journalism plays in supporting democratic societies, including these societies’ abilities to deal with crises, is also still very limited across the continent.

In 2020, journalists were sent to prison for revealing compromising information about the authorities’ management of the pandemic. This was the case in Zimbabwe (130) for Hopewell Chin’ono, an investigative reporter who was arrested after helping to expose overbilling by a company supplying medical equipment to combat Covid-19.

In Comoros (84), newspaper reporter Andjouza Abouheir was threatened with prosecution after she revealed that the country had reported no coronavirus cases because samples taken from persons suspected of being infected had not been sent for analysis.

On the whole, the pandemic helped undermine journalists’ independence and efforts to ensure governments carried out decisions based on facts.

In several countries, including South Africa, Botswana (38) and Eswatini (141), also criminalised the dissemination of “false information” about the virus, punishing violators with prison sentences.

The lack of progress with long-awaited legislative reforms in Gambia (85), Zimbabwe, Sudan (159), Angola (103) and the DRC reflects a disturbing sluggishness in countries that have seen recent changes of governments or the removal of autocrats notorious both for their longevity and predatory treatment of the press.

They include Ethiopia (101), which fell in the Index for the first time since Abiy Ahmed became prime minister in 2018.

Although the Ethiopian authorities launched a “fact-checking” initiative that was central to their relations with the media, journalists have long been prevented from visiting the country’s conflict zones.

Journalism is still dangerous in Africa, especially when journalists cover elections or social unrest.

In Uganda (125), the reelection of Yoweri Museveni, the country’s president for the past 35 years, was accompanied by a massive surge in abuses against journalists, while in the Republic of Congo (118), Denis Sassou Nguesso began his fourth consecutive term as president with a journalist arbitrarily held in one of his country’s jails.

Nigeria (120) is now one of the most dangerous countries in West Africa. Since 2019, three Nigerian journalists have been killed with complete impunity while covering street demonstrations.

The past year has brought no response about the fate of 11 journalists detained in Eritrea (180); now at the very bottom of the Index 20 years after a crackdown that shut down all independent media outlets and sent journalists to prison camps or into self-imposed exile.

Ranked first in the list, Norway has for years been at or near the top of all democracy and free speech rankings.

In 2020, Norway’s parliamentarians asked the government to issue an annual assessment of the state of freedom of expression and press freedom. They also requested regular updates on media policy implementation.

The 2021 Edelman Trust barometer reveals a disturbing level of public mistrust of journalists, with 59% of respondents in 28 countries saying that journalists deliberately try to mislead the public by reporting information they know to be false. In reality, journalistic pluralism and rigorous reporting serve to combat disinformation and “infodemics”, including false and misleading information.

According to the RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire, Journalism is the best vaccine against disinformation.

“Unfortunately, its production and distribution are too often blocked by political, economic, technological and, sometimes, even cultural factors. In response to the virality of disinformation across borders, on digital platforms and via social media, journalism provides the most effective means of ensuring that public debate is based on a diverse range of established facts.” He said. - Africa