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MSI Africa 2006-2007
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- Introduction
- Objective 1: Free Speech
- Objective 2: Professional Journalism
- Objective 3: Plurality of News Sources
- Objective 4: Business Management
- Objective 5: Supporting Institutions
- Panel Participants
Introduction
Overall Country Score: 2.21
Socio-political changes that occurred in the world in the late 1980s enabled the introduction of deep political reforms toward liberal democracy. In Mozambique, the approval of the 1990 constitution accelerated the democratization process in general, and in the media field in particular. The signing of the 1992 Peace Agreement, which ended one of the bloodiest civil wars in the history of the African continent, provided for a more favorable environment toward dialogue, participation, and organization of democratic elections.
Since 1994, the country has had three general and two municipal elections, held without conflict and cementing a multiparty atmosphere. The electoral campaigns were conducted with close coverage by the media. In 2004, a new constitution was approved, which deepened democratic liberties and, in tune with an environment of economic growth, favored the chances of both domestic and foreign investment in social areas, including the steadily evolving media sector.
In the past 15 years, 336 information agencies were registered, among them 12 radio and television stations (simultaneously), 15 television stations in the public, community, and commercial sectors, 46 magazines, 190 newspapers (both daily and weekly), and 23 other publications, including newsletters, advertising publications, and promotional magazines.1 According to the Information Office of the Prime Minister (GABINFO), 95 new newspapers have been in circulation since September 2005. Since then, 41 new community radio stations, seven religious radio stations, four commercial or private television channels, and 15 radios stations and community television channels have hit the airwaves.
Panelists’ scores reflected the growth of media in Mozambique: all objectives finished very close to one another and within two-tenths of a point of the overall average. Only Objective 4, business management, was lagging somewhat with a score of 2.01.
Objective 1: Freedom of Speech
Score: 2.36
“All of this is a process, because we have certain sectors that have started to understand the need to provide public-interest information. Compared to other countries, Mozambique has had significant advances in this aspect.” –Humberto Zandamela
Humberto Zandamela, a journalist with the Ministry for Women and Social Action, was eloquent when commenting that “the current Press Law and the government of Mozambique protect and promote free speech and the access to public information, although there is a certain trend in some public sectors that keep making the journalists’ work harder, often due to bureaucratic issues. For instance, in many institutions, there is a system that for the technocrat or individual responsible for something to provide useful information to the public, he first needs to be authorized by a senior manager, even when it is basic information that does not justify any authorization.” This situation is much more common in the provinces, where government power is still very centralized and controlled. There is a bill waiting for approval that deals with the access to official information sources filed before the Civil Society Republic Assembly. Beyond the bureaucratic aspect, lack of knowledge of the Press Law, although available, also contributes to the limitation of information access.
Licensing of the printed media is performed by GABINFO. This government agency also issues licenses to radio and television operators after the Board of Ministers approves an application. However, the criteria for such licensing is not quite clear, creating the impression that only private media must be licensed, as there is an automatic licensing for public media. In general, the licensing has been positive, and, so far, there are neither cases of licenses being rejected by GABINFO nor partiality for political or other reasons in granting of licenses. However, Lourenço Chibudje, a freelance reporter, only reluctantly agreed with this assessment, saying, “Mozambique, in regards to media licensing, is not up to the mark. It is clear that it’s GABINFO that performs the licensing [as opposed to the Board of Ministers].”
In Mozambique, several crimes against journalists have been reported recently. Such crimes are not seriously investigated by the responsible authorities, including the Journalists’ Labor Union and the government. Only when they are broadcast in the media do authorities issue some kind of statement. Isaías Natal said that “many of these cases, perhaps most of them, take place in the provinces and ultimately are not noticed by the public at-large, given the scant media existing in such provinces. As a result, the poor news coverage about crimes or interference with the exercise of journalism makes such occurrences seem rare.”
Chibudje said, “In the last few months, a few cases of aggression and sabotage in the newspaper sector were recorded, which causes journalists to live in fear, in a situation of insecurity.” He continued, saying there is constant “intimidation and persecution against journalists and news agencies investigating ‘hot cases.’” For example, he said, “the judicial power is always pursuing journalists.” “An example of this situation is the case of a journalist who had problems as he denounced unlawful acts of a boss of his,” he concluded.
However, 2007 witnessed a positive achievement in regards to punishing crimes against journalists. The Committee to Protect Journalists reported that in February the Supreme Court upheld the conviction of investigative reporter Carlos Cardoso’s murderers. Cardoso was killed in 2000 while investigating embezzlement from the Commercial Bank of Mozambique.2
The preferential treatment of public media is visible from the relationship it enjoys with government agencies and personalities. This is shown prominently, for example, when the president travels abroad. He takes along journalists from several public media outlets, resulting in unnecessary expenditures and the multiplication of efforts to cover only one event. On the other hand, according to Manuel Matola, a journalist with the Portuguese-language news agency Lusa, “political powers hinder the editorial line of public agencies. For instance, the community radio stations are very instrumental, and, therefore, they need an independent editorial line.” The influence of large companies in the editorial content of various media outlets, particularly private ones, was equally acknowledged by panelists as a result of the need for advertising in order to survive.
Defamation of the president remains a criminal offense in Mozambique, and libel is both a criminal offense and can be tried in civil courts. According to its 2007 Report on Human Rights Practices, the US State Department noted that although there were no cases of criminal defamation in 2007, two civil cases brought by private citizens against independent newspapers resulted in exorbitant damages that threatened to cause bankruptcy.
Although the Press Law ensures the right to freely access public information, in practice there are problems. Far from being what one might wish, Natal said, “there are still access difficulties to public information sources, especially in the farthest areas of the country, where the lack of knowledge about the law at-large still prevails, and the concentration of political power is notorious as well as the intolerance of the district administrators.”
The panelists were unanimous in acknowledging that there are few media outlets with access to international news due to the insufficiency of technical resources, including digital equipment. Many media have access to international news and even domestic news by means of the Mozambiquean Information Agency. This has implications for the diversity of news content and the amount of news available, as many outlets depend on the same agency. The lack of financial resources to access the Internet also means that many media have restricted access to international news through this medium.
There are no legal requirements to become a journalist, and the government does not license journalists. Media outlets are solely in charge of judging a prospective journalist’s qualifications before making a hiring decision.
Objective 2: Professional Journalism
Score: 2.12
“I see and notice a huge effort from journalists in delving into the reported subjects, although there are some limitations.” –Humberto Zandamela
There has been a significant improvement in terms of covering news items, although there is seldom follow-up, in investigative terms, of articles by journalists. Nonetheless, “not everybody reports news with dedication; some of them fail due to working conditions,” said Chibudje. Another reason contributing to articles of poor quality is the fact that “our sources, at times, do not provide information as it should be, resulting in incomplete articles and, therefore, without much quality,” he added.
In general, journalists try to follow ethical standards, but this is often made unfeasible because of the difficulties faced on a daily basis. “They eventually accept favors from a few sources. For instance, when they are invited to an event, that source pays the journalists’ per diem and transportation, which contributes to a lack of impartiality, even in cases with negative aspects as far as news on public affairs is concerned,” said Zandamela. At times, difficulties are related to the very nature of newspapers, where reporters are compelled to provide their articles on deadline before completing their investigations. This is exacerbated by the “inaccessibility of some sources that do not provide information in a timely manner, which forces journalists to often publish incomplete articles, under pressure from the editorial staff,” according to Zandamela. Panelists also mentioned that interference with journalists’ work contributes to the irrationality and subjectivity of articles. However, “the practice of ethical standards of journalism, which are sometimes violated, is improving. …there are professionals who try to reverse the current lack of quality journalism,” said Matola.
Regarding self-censorship, some journalists have stated that there is no censorship for a large share of journalists and publishers. Others, however, have claimed that censorship is present, especially in government-run media; therefore, “only private media publish certain ‘hot’ stories,” according to Lobão João, assistant publisher with Diário de Moçambique. Many times, news editing is subject to the whims of what some people want (or do not want) to see published, as often happens during elections, where only the intended results (in this case, by the government) are published. Also, in regards to this issue, Natal thought it important to point out “that there is much censorship in editorial offices, which is exerted by both the publishers and the outside world, namely, the political and economic powers, among others.”
The vast majority of Mozambiquean media is focused on the capital, Maputo, which causes a great share of news media to cover only that part of the country. In general, only the public media provide broad coverage comprising the whole country. This is beneficial in extraordinary events—not only those of a political character, but also in the case of emergency and calamitous situations. Although small private media outlets have begun to appear in provincial capitals, the poor transportation resources and meager financial means of these outlets does not allow them to cover beyond provincial boundaries. To win credibility, many of these small, new media outlets base their news “on what the population enjoys seeing or hearing”—that is, daily scandals and gossip and not necessarily major events and problems affecting the population, the country, and the world.
The panel’s consensus was that, in the journalistic profession, corruption is not directly related to wages; in other words, a low wage does not lead to corruption. “By the way, it has been clear lately that publishers (who earn high wages) are more predisposed to corruption. Therefore, wages cannot be cited as the reason for this kind of behavior,” said Matola. There have also been reported cases of journalists who were bribed once and then continued to accept bribes because they knew that, if they refused, their supervisors would step in and take the bribe.
The panelists agreed that public media have well-defined program schedules, including news, entertainment, and other kinds of programs. At private media there is a bigger focus on entertainment programming, as this attracts viewers and therefore advertising, and news programming suffers as a result.
Facilities used by most media outlets in Mozambique were not originally built for that purpose. Most facilities were adapted for media use and are quite unsatisfactory. Furthermore, the lack of funds does not allow for the great majority of agencies to equip their facilities with modern technology or enough resources. Teixeira Cunheira, head of the editorial office at Mozambique Radio in Tete, said, “It has not been easy to explain the need for modern technologies, even when funds are available.” Dalila Miquidade, also of Mozambique Radio, added, “There is little willingness by those in charge of the media to furnish editorial rooms with high-quality equipment.”
High-quality articles and programs are found, for the most part, in state-run media, except for one television channel and radio station, STV, which has proven to be competitive with state-run media in terms of investigation and follow-up of news stories. The character of the news being investigated differs from state media, and it covers the daily activities of the populace at-large. Panelists agreed that, in general, the national media still have much work to do before attaining international standards of quality.
Objective 3: Plurality of News
Score: 2.24
“We noticed great advances in the diversification of sources, both in the public sector and the private one, and an effort can also be noticed, by each media outlet, in the interest of covering common interests and individuals as an attempt to seek an exclusive, unique angle on the editorial political approach.” –Humberto Zandamela
Radio Mozambique covers 96 percent of the territory and is broadcast in 23 national languages as well as Portuguese. There is a broadcast in English, directed at South Africa. The national public television covers only 35 percent of the territory and is limited to major cities and villages, using only the Portuguese language. Likewise, written press publications are in the Portuguese language. Taking into account an illiteracy rate of 55 percent and a media concentration in three large cities—Maputo, Beira, and Nampula—access to the media by the public at-large in rural areas is limited; rural areas hold about 80 percent of the total population. In general, this segment of the population does not speak Portuguese and lives in poverty. The large number of independent newspapers, radio stations, and television channels that were created in the country after the liberalization of the media work in conjunction with public media outlets, formerly controlled by the state.
Despite the number of media outlets, there is little diversity of public and private news sources. Most media gather news from the few international sources that publish in Portuguese. Further, “not every private radio station makes an effort to publish public-interest subjects, while others simply keep reproducing news by means of newspapers and the Internet,” said Natal. Internet access is limited for financial reasons, both in terms of availability of funds to buy computers and in terms of costs related to Internet service subscriptions.
“The law does not prevent people from having access to national or international channels,” noted Matola. Restricting citizens from accessing national and international media is not present in laws or regulations, but nonetheless difficulties in accessing media remain. “News sources are available and there are a plethora of open media, but the major problem is the ability to purchase or access, particularly the Internet, due to the low income of most of the population,” Matola continued. An example of opening access to news (although selectively available) is through community radio stations that broadcast in several languages appropriate for the local audience.
In Mozambique, public-service broadcasting is limited to Radio Mozambique and Television Mozambique. They are “natural multipliers, especially with news content, as they have a strong effect on the audience,” according to Matola. Nevertheless, there is still a great effort by every type of media to deal with public-interest subjects. Zandamela spoke of a variety of programs focusing on “public education and information in order to reduce poverty and the promotion of citizens’ rights.” In certain cases, according to Chibudje, “private media manage to be very independent,” better reflecting citizens’ viewpoints. Notwithstanding “electoral periods, despite the available options for news, results are not published, not even preliminary ones,” he said.
The group consensus was that there is no unity or information-sharing among media outlets. There is only one information agency—Mozambiquean Information Agency, run by the state—and businesspeople have never united to form a commercial counterpart.
Independent broadcast media produce their news based on news collected from the Internet or other national and international radio stations and newspapers. Poor transportation resources and a lack of personnel limit the ability to generate in-house news. However, Chibudje considered that, “in terms of news, the independent media excel, as they report in a more unbiased way.”
Objective 4: Business Management
Score: 2.01
“Here one can see strong competitiveness between public and private media regarding advertising to the detriment of their own news material as, in general, everybody resorts to advertising as a strategy of survival. Even public media funded by the government look for or actually devote a lot of space to advertising.” –Humberto Zandamela
Concerning this objective, panelists were unanimous that the private media are not sufficiently managed to generate a profit. Panelists also called into question the ability of private media to raise enough revenue to break even and maintain editorial independence. Most institutions are reluctant to support private media outlets, although the advertising field is clearly developing.
Matola believes that private media activities “…should be profitable; the country’s reality, though, shows that the main part of the media does not survive primarily due to the lack of a clear policy in the area of advertising, which mainly benefits pro-government outlets.” Concerning the sustainability of media by selling advertisements, Zandamela stated that “the media—newspapers and magazines—face high taxes on paper imports and, as a result, production; therefore, advertising becomes the last resort for their continuation.”
In Mozambique, there is no newspaper distribution business. Each media company uses its own strategies to sell its product. Panelists think that is one reason that newspapers are delivered late in many regions of the country, and why there are regions where no newspapers are delivered at all.
The panelists considered that, in general, the independent media do not receive revenue from multiple sources, except in cases where there are specific programs that interest particular sponsors. This is a detriment to news programming, according to Virgínia Cossa, an attorney. She reported that “…advertising is the most widely used means to acquire funds to maintain the media. As such, media have to be careful to not be contrary to the interests of those who advertise in them. For example, a private newspaper published a piece of news, which was reprinted in European newspapers, about Muslims. The latter, in response, stopped advertising in the newspaper, which resulted in huge financial troubles for them.”
In Mozambique, according to the panelists, the government does not fund the private media. Panelist Zandamela believed that “…the government should fund every media outlet, either public or private, as is the case in some African countries like Rwanda3, where the media are merely concerned about informing the public, not about advertising as their source of survival.”
Matola reported that “…there is no systematic market research. This is necessary for media companies to design strategic plans, enabling them to have a greater presence in the market.” Miquidade stated that “…in Mozambique, for the time being, little can be said about strategic plans in regards to increasing advertising funds and adapting products to the public’s needs and interests.”
Objective 5: Supporting Institutions
Score: 2.33
In Mozambique, there is a National Union of Journalists (SNJ), an Association of Media Companies, and one NGO dedicated to media issues, the Media Institute for Southern Africa-Mozambique (MISA). Natal, one of the panelists from the province of Sofala, stated, “The National Union of Journalists, in the province of Sofala, doesn’t work.” He also said, “In a recent incident in Beira, a reporter from Diário de Moçambique newspaper was kicked while carrying out his duties, but neither SNJ nor the association of journalistic companies intervened as representatives of the journalists’ employers. Only MISA was heard.”
The intervention of professional associations in protecting media rights is still in an embryonic phase in Mozambique. Miquidade said that, although there are associations of media companies, labor unions, and others, “…in its actual operation little or nearly nothing has been done to support and protect journalists in case their rights are violated.”
The panelists were unanimous in the opinion that NGOs do not support freedom of the press and the independent press. There is some funding from NGOs for a few educational programs, such as those about HIV/AIDS, malaria, TB, and others. There are no systematic support programs. Only MISA has taken on such initiatives.
Panelists expressed a growing concern in the country in regards to educating high-quality journalists, noting that there is still a long way to go. One positive example mentioned was the School of Journalism, which provides practical training for those who graduate in their respective courses. According to Miquidade, “…actually in Mozambique there are few educational programs in journalism. As an example, we have the recently established Communication and Arts School of the Eduardo Mondlane University, which has not yet graduated its first journalism students.”
In general, the panelists agree that educational programs are always beneficial to journalists, as they provide sufficient tools for them to face the challenges of their occupation. Miquidade’s viewpoint was that “…short-term practical education programs have provided media professionals with much support, as is the case of NSJ, which has offered educational courses to journalists.”
Journalists constantly benefit from education through scholarships, qualification training, and retraining courses. However, in-house training cannot be found at private and community media outlets, whose journalists rarely benefit from training opportunities. Private and community agencies often depend only on training opportunities provided by domestic and foreign NGOs, such as NSJ and MISA Mozambique.
Panel Participants
Lourenço Chibudje, freelance reporter, Xhimoio
Virgínia Albino Cossa, attorney, Maputo
Teixeira Chissuana Cunheira, head of editorial office, Rádio Moçambique, Tete
Eugénio Américo Da Câmara, freelance writer, Maputo
Lobão João Mauelele, assistant publisher, Diário de Moçambique, Maputo
Manuel Matola, journalist, Lusa Agency, Maputo
Nurat Dalila Miquidade, journalist, Rádio Moçambique, Maputo
Isaías Natal, reporter, Zambeze Newspaper, Beira
Estácio Valoi, freelance journalist, Maputo
Humberto Alfredo Zandamela, journalist, Ministry for Women and Social Action, Maputo
Moderators
Julieta M. Langa, linguistics department head, Literature and Social Sciences College - Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo
Eliseu Mabasso, professor, Literature and Social Sciences College - Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo
Eurico Galvão de J.B. Romão, director, Communication and Arts School - Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo
The Mozambique study was coordinated by, and conducted in partnership with, NSJ – Southern Africa Media training Trust, Maputo.