SID-Washington Africa Workgroup Event:
“Impact of Media on Elections in Africa”
May 19th, 2008
On May 19th SID-Washington’s Africa Workgroup, in cooperation with the Governance, Corruption, Rule of Law Workgroup, presented a discussion on the impact of the media in mitigating or contributing to election violence in Africa. The panel was moderated by Leon Morse, Manager of the Media Sustainability Index for Africa, IREX. Panelists included Ambrose James, Search for Common Ground's Sierra Leone Country Director; Christian Hennemeyer, International Foundations for Electoral Systems (IFES) Regional Director of Programs for Africa; and Pat Merloe, Senior Associate and Director, Program for Election Processes, National Democratic Institute (NDI).
Leon Morse started the session with background on the current status of the media in Africa. He explained that IREX’s Media Sustainability Index takes into account four components: freedom of speech, professional journalism, plurality of news, and business management. All components matter because poor practices in one area begets poor practices in another. Mr. Morse also stressed the importance of considering the media as an institution, a public institution that checks the other branches of government. But like these other branches, the power the media holds can also be abused.
Ambrose James shared his experience in organizing a grassroots media and civil society campaign to monitor and mitigate election violence during Sierra Leone's 2007 elections. He described the organization he worked for, the Independent Radio Network (IRN), as more of a conflict transformation organization than a media organization, which used a multimedia approach to transform conflict and avert violent situations. The growth in these different media has been formidable. In 2000, there were only 4 radio stations. Today there are 35-40 diverse stations catering to different audiences. Radio is perhaps the most powerful media in Sierra Leone as 80-90% of the population listen to it.
IRN was first created to cover the general elections. Its coverage helped to ease tensions and bring legitimacy to the elections as trends could be witnessed developing continuously throughout the day. It also prepared the incumbents for defeat, slowly acclimating them to the reality of their unpopularity. After the elections the IRN persisted and became a means to hold the winners accountable to their campaign promises. Broadcasting debates and interviews with foreign officials and election observers averted tensions and brought legitimacy to the process. The fact that all those involved were Sierra Leoneans also brought an aspect of legitimacy and ownership to the media.
The Independent Radio Network’s strategy was to combine civil society, radio stations, and the National Elections Commission to establish a culture of openness and information. Because it was so successful, radio stations were enthusiastically giving free airtime to IRN. With over 400 reporters, the media came to also serve as a problem-solving mechanism, facilitating the work of police, NGOs and election workers. Information triggered action: missing ballot boxes and potential outbreaks of violence could be dealt with instead of ignored until it was too late.
Christian Hennemeyer discussed the work his organization, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, conducts on elections in Africa. He noted that while elections are designed to be harbingers of hope and peace, they can also expose fundamental fractions and bring to the forefront grievances previously papered over. He described the democratic process in Africa as generally being driven, not by ideology as during the Cold War, but by money, kinship and dominance. Though this can be said of other regions in the world, this is especially serious in Africa because its weak societies give way to “politics by machete.”
Mr. Hennemeyer also spoke about the recent mushrooming of media stations. Unchecked, the flourishing of media can be a promoter of both good and bad behavior. As an example, he pointed to Radio Milles-Collines in Rwanda which encouraged, via its use of inflammatory hate speech, the extermination of Tutsis during the 1994 genocide. Yet some stations are also the victims of crime, with equipment being vandalized, signals being jammed, and reporters being jailed or mysteriously “disappeared.”
IFES is taking on several projects to bring the media in Africa into maturity. It helps to bring together the media and electoral commissions; it trains in responsible journalism and in more complicated forms of reporting such as economic reporting; it helps put up news websites to encourage the growth of the internet as yet another medium; and it promotes legislation favorable to open media. Mr. Hennemeyer concluded by saying these media avenues are all still groundbreaking in Africa and have a lot of room to grow.
Pat Merloe spoke about the specific guidelines that National Democratic Institute (NDI) has developed in this field on creating media accountability and mobilizing citizens. He also discussed how the media can have negative effects on democracy, whether it acts deliberately to aggravate the possibility of violence, or does so by acting irresponsibly. NDI acts to create dialogue and educate members of the media about codes of conduct in order to prevent hate speech as well as to remedy hate speech rapidly before it can take effect.
One way to keep the media in line is to publish reports on how it handled violence (e.g. as was done during the South African elections in 1994.) Having key media personalities and politicians renounce violence publicly and broadcasting debates and dialogue also helps to clarify what is, and is not, an appropriate response. Finally, avenues for the redresses of the people need to be created so that they do not feel voiceless and turn to violence to be heard.