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Truth to power
Freedom of the press is an easy concept to take for granted when you’re enjoying it, both as a consumer of a free press and as a practitioner in the media business.
In countries like the United States and the UK, even as political discourse takes a more extreme path, there is still a strong sense ordinary people and journalists can share their opinions, rightly or wrongly, in a public forum with little fear of direct reprisal from the government.
That’s still not the case in too many African countries. As Mohamed Keita wrote for Quartz last December, American journalists could learn a thing or two from their African colleagues on practicing journalism while a thin-skinned, egomaniac is your president.
The Committee to Protect Journalists keeps a running tally of African journalists who are being arrested, attacked, fled or locked up in more countries than you often hear about.
Of several things that you can do wrong in some African countries, insulting the president seems to be a favorite excuse for being picked up by security authorities. In Uganda, see the case of academic Stella Nyanzi, the LGBTQ and girls’ rights activist, who has been locked up for her postings on Facebook about president Yoweri Museveni and his wife Janet, the education minister. Last month, two Zimbabwean journalists were arrested for undermining and insulting president Robert Mugabe for a story about the 92-year old’s health. They were later released.
Meanwhile, over in Tanzania, we’ve written a few times now on the deteriorating media environment under the presidency of John Magufuli. He’d been admired for more than a year from afar by other Africans as a “can do” leader with his populist action against corruption and mismanagement. But a dark side has emerged. Apparently, he is able to dish out criticism but seems unwilling to take it and the local press is taking note.
At times, a few citizens in countries where these kinds of things take place argue it’s more important to focus on the economic or administrative achievements of such leaders. Here’s the problem with that kind of thinking, without a free and fair press, you’re relying on the government to define its own success or failure. The role of the press in buttressing democracies should never be underestimated.
Yinka Adegoke, Quartz Africa editor
Stories from this week
The UAE is slowly expanding its influence in the Horn of Africa. Over the last few years, the United Arab Emirates has been signing concession agreements to develop ports and fund military bases in countries like Somalia and Eritrea. The deals have proved controversial, with observers arguing the Gulf nation is dragging African countries into wars that far exceed their strategic purview and military capacity.
The academic jailed for calling Uganda’s president “a pair of buttocks.” In colorfully worded Facebook posts, Ugandan academic and activist Stella Nyanzi has been criticizing both president Yoweri Museveni and his wife, Janet. Besides sentencing her to prison, the government last week also used a 1938 colonial law to try and commit Nyanzi to a mental institution, writes Lydia Namubiru.
From Shell to hidden cash piles, high-scale corruption still shocks ordinary Nigerians. After instituting a new whistle-blower policy that encourages citizens to report corruption offenses, Nigeria’s government has been uncovering stashes of cash totaling tens of millions of dollars in various locations. As Yomi Kazeem notes, the cash discoveries coincide with new revelations that show how Shell oil executives and Nigerian government officials allegedly colluded in a bribery scheme that robbed more than a billion dollars from state coffers.
A pan-African policy proposal to shut down internet shutdowns. Eleven African governments blocked the internet last year, either during electioneering or in anti-government protests. But if a new policy suggestion to Africa’s internet registry is adopted, governments could be denied IP addresses for a period of up to five years reports Abdi Latif Dahir.
The East African marathoners trying to break the two-hour marathon. In Dec. 2016, Nike unveiled Breaking2, a project aimed at achieving a sub two-hour marathon time. Julia Steers traveled to Kaptagat in Kenya to meet the top runners who hope to break this limit.
CHART OF THE WEEK
South Africa’s struggling economy hits its youth the hardest. Thousands of young South Africans took to the streets on April 12 in the wake of a cabinet reshuffle that led to the cutting of the country’s credit rating to junk status. As Lynsey Chutel explains, with about half of South Africans under the age of 35 unemployed, the knock-on effects of the downgrade will hit the country’s young the hardest.
Other Things We Liked
DR Congo’s pricey passports and the murky links to Kabila. The average per capita income in the Democratic Republic of Congo is less than $700, yet to get a passport cost Congolese applicants a hefty $185. As David Lewis reports for Reuters, passport processing presents an opportunity for foreign companies to make hundreds of millions of dollars off some of the poorest people in the world.
Super fans and trhe trap of black girl magic. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was criticized last month for comments she made about transgender women not being “real women,” and then refused to apologize for it. In an essay for Africa is a Country, Sisonke Msimang writes that Adichie’s over-reach was bigger than her, and rooted in a culture where the celebrity stands in for the identities of those who love him or her.
Keep an eye on
World Book and Copyright Day (Apr. 23-25). The UNESCO-mandated day is organized so that publishing houses, bookstores, and libraries can promote the culture of reading, publishing, and the protection of intellectual property. The day will also mark the beginning of the term of Conakry, the capital of the Republic of Guinea, as World Book Capital for 2017-2018.
Our best wishes for a productive and thought-filled week ahead. Please send any news, comments, suggestions, keys to Lagos apartments stacked with $100 bills and super-fast marathon running shoes to africa@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter at @qzafrica for updates throughout the day.
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