Press Freedom and Globalisation - International Press Institute

Press Freedom and Globalisation
is therefore mostly European interpretations. 169 This Western creation of Africa dominates
stories about Africa in global media. Images from the colonial era are still alive. These are
stereotypes such as adventures, crocodiles, Tarzan, disasters and military coups. Thus,
Africa is transformed to adventures which can be commodities in the global market for
media content. 170 Press freedom with social responsibility has not been any hindrance to
exploit and stigmatise Africa like this in global markets.
Even Africans themselves are inhibited by this Western philosophy. Attempts to
make an African notion of press freedom, take a critical view to Western values but come
up with similarities to Western practice. In the neo-colonialism debate, it is pointed out
how Africans use Western philosophy to describe Africa and how that continue to support
the Western notion of Africa. Within the framework of Western philosophy, it is
impossible to produce unique African concepts. To be liberated from Western political and
economic dominance, it is necessary to develop specific African thought systems. 171 Thus,
it is a long way to any specific press freedom based on African values.
Another neo-colonial force is ownership. A lot of African media industry is owned
by Western corporates. In addition, almost all content beyond local events are produced by
news agencies, other media providers as well as advertising agencies owned by Western
companies. 172 It is in their interests to maintain the existing media order based on Western
concepts of free markets and press freedom.
The West preaches democracy and press freedom to Africa, but the democratisation
processes are different. In the West, democracies emerged as a compromise to manage
169
Mudimbe, V. Y., The Idea of Africa (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994), pp. 40-41, 71-72 and
211-212.
170
Hawk, Beverly G. (ed.), Africa’s Media Image (Westport, USA: Praeger Publishers, 1992), pp. 4-16.
171
p’Bitek, Okot, African Religions in Western Scholarship (Nairobi: Kenya Literature Bureau, 1970), pp.
90-91 and 102-119.
172
Brislin, Tom, “Empowerment as a Universal Ethic in Global Journalism”, p. 131; and Paterson, “Global
Battlefields”, p. 80.
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