Press Freedom and Globalisation - International Press Institute

Press Freedom and Globalisation
Chronicle, published quarterly by missionaires from 1895. During a few years, several
newsletters, journals and even the newspaper The African Standard, in 1902, were laun-
ched. Activities by European settlers and missionaires initiated most of these publications
which used European as well as Indian, Arabic, Swahili and Kikuyu languages. The first
indigenous papers, made by Africans for their own purposes, did not appear before the
1920s. The first was the Swahili Tangazo. A few years later was Muigwithania founded by
the Kikuyu Central Association with Jomo Kenyatta as its first editor. 3
The British ruled Kenya from around 1890 and declared it a colony in 1920. 4
Uganda fell under British control from 1900. 5 Tanganyika was transferred from Germany
to Britain after First World War. 6 In early days of colonial rule relations between
authorities and the press were harmonious. As controversies between authorities and
indigenous people rose, such conflicts became issues in the press. Colonial authorities
started to turn to the press to further their interests. An attempt in Kenya was to publish
Habari by the Native Affairs Department. The aim was to give literate Africans a moderate
paper supporting official policies to avoid growth of papers that rejected the government,
Europeans and Christianity. 7 Another step in this initially moderate policy was when the
British in 1927 introduced the first radio in black Africa in Kenya. 8
The British press freedom and information policy in colonial East Africa came to
be a dual history. On one hand, the British were influenced by philosophy which gave rise
to such ideas as liberty, democracy, public participation and hence need for free informa-
tion. On the other hand, to achieve control in East Africa became more important than
3
Abuoga and Mutere, The History of the Press in Kenya, pp. 4-10.
4
Sayer, Geoff, Kenya : the background : the issues : the people : An Oxfam Country Profile (Oxford: Oxfam,
2004 [1998]), pp. 16-17; and Abuoga and Mutere, The History of the Press in Kenya, p. 11.
5
Leggett, Uganda, pp. 16-17.
6
Philip’s, Philip’s Encyclopedia, p. 724.
7
Ibid., pp. 8 and 13-17.
8
Nwosu, Ikechukwu, “An Overview of the Mass Media and the African Society” in Domatob, Jerry, Jika,
Abubakar and Nwosu, Ikechukwu (eds.), Mass Media and the African Society (Nairobi: The African
Council on Communication Education, 1987), p. 6.
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