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Moyiga Nduru
JOHANNESBURG, Jan 14 (IPS) - The new year has started on a bad note for the media in Africa, with journalists under siege in various parts of the continent.
In Zambia, columnist Roy Clarke has gone into hiding. He faces deportation for allegedly defaming Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa by referring to him as a "lumbering, foolish elephant" who heads a "farm" of corrupt officials.
Clarke had invoked George Orwell's famed novel, "Animal Farm", in his weekly satire -- something Zambian authorities did not take lightly.
The writer, a permanent resident of Zambia who is married to a local human rights activist, has won a delay of his deportation in the Zambian High Court.
However, Home Affairs Minister Ronnie Shikapwaswa told local newspapers that the court's ruling would not affect Clarke's expulsion -- a statement that set off alarm bells at the Windhoek-based Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA).
"Zambia used to be media friendly. Even after the (2001) elections, it was a media darling. Now things are changing," Jude Mathurine, a spokesperson for the Johannesburg branch of MISA, told IPS this week.
While Clarke has been able to play hide-and-seek with the police, his colleagues in neighbouring Zimbabwe have had no such luck.
Iden Wetherell, who has had several run-ins with the government of President Robert Mugabe, was jailed over the weekend in Harare, along with another two journalists from the privately-owned "Independent" weekly.
Wetherell, who edits the Independent, came under fire for publishing a story which alleged that Mugabe had commandeered an Air Zimbabwe plane for his recent holiday to the Far East, leaving passengers stranded.
The three reporters, who have been freed on bail of 25 US dollars each, will appear in court on Jan. 29.
Mathurine said Zimbabwe had embarked on a vicious campaign "to stifle what the public wants to know".
"Our duly elected political leaders in Africa see themselves (as being) beyond criticism," he added. "This means that those elected individuals cannot be criticised or made fun of, in order to bring out the strengths and weaknesses in their policies."
The Johannesburg-based Foreign Correspondents' Association has joined MISA in expressing concern about the situation in Zimbabwe, particularly the "draconian Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act under which several Zimbabwean and foreign journalists have been charged since 2002".
Kenya has also heralded 2004 by tightening controls on the media.
On Jan. 10, police raided news stands in cities across the country, confiscating thousands of copies of newspapers which were published by the so-called alternative press.
Information Minister Raphael Tuju, who has previously accused these papers of refusing to obey the law, said the operation was aimed at getting rid of illegal publications. However, government critics claim the confiscations had more to do with the fact that the papers were printing uncomplimentary articles about the administration.
According to a 2003 report by "Reporters Without Borders" (RSF) -- a Paris-based media watchdog -- about 180 journalists were detained in Africa during 2002. Figures for 2003 have yet to be compiled. RSF also noted that more than 80 news media were censored in Africa during 2002.
"It is still difficult to work as a journalist in freedom and security in Sub-Saharan Africa," said RSF, adding that the Horn of Africa had proved to be the worst region for reporters.
The independent press has ceased to exist in Eritrea, for example. Authorities banned privately-owned publications in September 2001, after some of these began voicing concerns about the state of democracy in Eritrea.
Police also arrested journalists. With up to 18 reporters in detention at the end of 2002, Eritrea ranked alongside Nepal as the world's biggest jailer of media practitioners at that time.
In September last year the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which has dubbed Eritrea one of the "10 worst places to be a journalist", called for the release of 17 reporters it claimed were still in prison.
The situation is little better in neighbouring Ethiopia, while general insecurity and the absence of a central government in Somalia have made that state a difficult place to report in. Furthermore, the opposition press has very little leeway in Djibouti.
South Africa, Benin, Botswana, Cape Verde, Mali and Mauritius are amongst the few beacons of hope for media freedom in Africa.
RSF has highlighted the fact that some of these nations "are among the poorest in the world", saying this subverts the theory that press freedom is a luxury reserved for wealthy states.
The CPJ, for its part, has called on the African Union to take the lead in ensuring free speech in Africa. "By guaranteeing freedom of expression and freedom of the press, the African Union can help ensure democracy and stability across the continent," Ann Cooper, CPJ Executive Director, wrote to the pan-African body in July last year.
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