Africanews
Only for the last few years, media in Chad began to breath the air of freedom. Cultivating a culture of peace is a major item on the agenda but existential problems have to be solved first. N'djamena-based journalist, Gerard Rakiss Bongo says pluralism has brought not only painful consequences but also happy changes and hope for the future. |
Like everywhere else, information is disseminated in Chad by newspapers, radio and television. But the difference in this country was that the government was the only source of information until recently.
Pluralism in the media came along with the process of democratisation which began a few years ago. Today's Chad has both state and privately-owned media. The private media organisations are also known as "free or independent press" though they often become victims of various vested interests. The state media are comprised of the national radio, television and the daily, I'Agence. There is no fundamental difference among the electronic media because of the fact that they are all state-owned.
The democratisation process forced the government to set up a High Council of Communication (HCC) to deal with the growing demand for the private media. In spite of the creation of HCC and the golden promises to the private media sector, investors continue to hesitate to put money especially in the fields of radio and television.
In the field of the print media, the situation is a little bit better. The number of private newspapers is on the increase. Though the private newspapers have their own specificity, the majority of them talk about government censorship, their financial difficulties and the dangers of competition.
This type of existence together with the enormous difficulties of living in Chad, lead journalists to all types of temptations and hence destroy their integrity as human beings and professionals. Such working and living conditions continue to reinforce the old order of information diffusion.
The free press bring together the forces which the government considers dangerous. They also bring to the surface all types of public opinion contrary to what the state-owned media do. The independent newspapers Contact and N'Djamena-Hebdo had to pay heavy prices for their criticism of the government: The army devastated their offices and several of their journalists were arrested.
Attacks on independent newspapers and journalists have catastrophic consequences: The majority of the journalists began to practise self- censorship; they were considered inferior to journalists working for the state-owned press.
Self-censorship became a common reality not only because of the fear of violence especially from the government, but also because of the fear of legal pursuits for writing against the government.
The state-owned media recruit journalists who are integrated to the public service. They employ stringers and freelance journalists if they can write for the interests of the government and become instruments in reaching the government's view-point to the public. These "public servants" in the media are paid like employees of any other departments of public service. In spite of this privileged treatment, these journalists do not regularly receive their salaries!
The state-owned media have to work in line with the materials given by the government. This economic dependence brings about serious negative repercussions on journalists and the quality of their work.
Unlike the state-owned media, the private press are considered number one enemy of the government. Free press thus have to live in harder circumstances in their attempts to break even.
Other serious handicaps of the free press are the absence of solid investors, insufficient advertising, lack of subsidies and imposition of various taxes on production materials which are often imported.
Considering these difficulties, the PANOS Institute decided to give a total subsidy of CFA 10 million (about US$ 20,000) to five independent newspapers in Chad so that they could cope with the terrible devaluation of the West African currency, CFA Francs in 1994. The amount was distributed as following: N'Djamena-Hebdo: 2,746,000; Tchad et Culture; Contact 1,579,000; le Temps: 923,000.
Unfortunately, the subsidies did not correspond to the grave realities and great expectations. Some of the private newspapers spend more than two million CFA per month just for printing. Besides, they very often make losses.
The main threats to the private press are the lack of qualified personnel and the weak purchasing power of the readers. Competition is not yet a very big problem for the locally produced publications.
The desire of readers to refer to various sources of information and to get more and more analyses, commentaries and in-depth reports, force them to go through all publications they can find. Besides, local publications are less expensive and give more local news. The foreign publications such as Jeune Afrique costs CFA 1600 when the locally produced N'Djamena-Hebdo costs only CFA 300. The local newspaper give a better coverage of events and are rapidly distributed.
Postal delays affect mainly foreign publications which may also become victims of government censorship during the postal transfer. In spite of the absence of distribution agencies, some of the local publications reach the news-stands of provincial towns. This is the case of Tchad et Culture which has its own correspondents and distribution network in almost all the big cities.
Until then, national radio had the monopoly on all frequencies in Chad. Since the arrival of foreign radios, the national radio began to lose its public. Listeners became more demanding and they began to criticise the state radio for not diffusing important information affecting the people.
The national radio does not hesitate to broadcast the long speeches of politicians or personalities close to the government. Besides, the state censorship does not allow the journalists to make an analysis of the speech or a commentary on an aspect that is not in favour of the government.
If a journalist dared more, he would be simply suspended from his job. This is true not only in the capital, N'djamena, but also in the interior.
The national television has the same difficulties. Besides, they broadcast mediocre programmes and rebroadcast programmes from France, Egypt, Tunisia, Cameroon, USA and China. A serious handicap of the national television is that it is broadcast only from Tuesday to Sunday between 18 and 23 hours and it can be watched only in the capital.
Another development that affects the national television is the private antennas. The inhabitants of the cities in the interior of the country compensate for their television needs by video or private. Near the frontiers, people tune to foreign television programmes from neighbouring countries.
The pluralism in Chad has already brought divisions especially between the new and old order of information. However, one can at least talk about ethics, start practising real journalism and work for true peace today.
| CONTENTS | AFRICANEWS HOMEPAGE |
AFRICANEWS - Koinonia Media Centre, P.O. Box 8034, Nairobi, Kenya
tel/fax: 254.2.560385 - e-mail: [email protected]
AFRICANEWS on line is by Enrico Marcandalli