1 MISA ZAMBIA MEDIA LITERACYWORKSHOP Title: The Role of the Public in Media Development Host: Solwezi Community Media Association (Socoma) Venue: Changa Changa Motel, Solwezi Duration: 19-23 November, 2006 By Robby Makayi Journalist/Media Consultant Topic: The Case for a Rural Media: ( For, by and about people) 1. Introduction The media’s role is to inform, educate and enlighten society on all issues that affect it, including entertainment. For the sake of human progress, advancement, well being and happiness, the media is the self appointed monitor of people’s lives. It posses and seeks answers for the society on the “Five Ws ands H” of journalism: What?……..development? Who?……...is affected, benefits for whom? When?…….is it happening? Where?……will it take place? Why?……..is it taking place - reasons, rationale? How?……..is it taking place- plans, objectives, activities? In this process, the media’s functions are to provide all the pertinent information to enable the people to know what is going on around them and in their lives. The people have a right to know issues that affect their lives. The media therefore, more often than not, sets the agenda on public interest issues. It provokes discussion, arguments, debates, consultation and consensus of issues of public interest. 2. Watchdog (Media) Vs. the Bulldog (Governors) It is the role of the media as the watchdog of society to exercise press freedom in order to bring to light that which is concealed from the public eye, to articulate and crusade on issues that affect the welfare of the people they serve. The media’s loyalty should be to the society and not those in power who ought to pledge their loyalty to the people who elected them to positions of influenced. The responsibility of the media is to act as a watchdog of society. The media enables the electorate to make informed and intelligent choices and there, the troubles begin. It brings the “watchdog” into immediate and direct conflict with the “bulldog” who feels that its territory - position of power and influence- was being threatened. The powerful in society – politicians and governors will begin to growl and bear their sharp and vicious teeth, ready to defend their turf.
2 Inevitably, the relations between the rulers and the media become uneasy, tenuous, suspicious and fretful. All governments are certain that the national interest requires that they remain in office and they do not achieve this by sprinkling rose water upon editors. Here are some interesting quotes on how politicians view the relationship between themselves and the media: a. Lech Walesa – former Polish president (Washington D.C. 21 April, 1993) “Information is like a knife. In the hand of a surgeon, it can save a life. In the hand of a criminal, it can end a life.” b. An American revolutionary leaders 200 years ago – “There is nothing so fretting and vexatious, nothing so justly terrible to tyrants and their tools and abettors as free press.” c. Askar Akayev, former president of Kyrgyz Republic - Central Asia (Washington DC, 18 may, 1993) “Our concept of democracy is built on a foundation of the fact that the freedom of the press is its basic principle. Freedom of the press means trust in the common sense of the people, it means encouraging free thought, it is the right top call into doubt and changes the established order”. d. Frederick Chiluba, former president of Zambia (Washington DC, 19 February 1992) “We decided that press freedom must be promoted so that whatever we are trying to sweep under the carpet and what ever may pass in that house (parliament) by our MMD majority, will not escape the notice of society. It must call us to account for it, if the press remains free. By implication, if there is no enableling environment for a free press, then there will be no accountability.” It will be noticed that these lofty ideals of the importance of press freedom were professed by these leaders while in the citadel of western democracy where press freedom is a fundamental right enshrined, protected and promoted by the constitution of the USA. The story in their own countries was different. The regime in Kyrgyz Republic is so repressive that up to today, a popular uprising is still raging demanding constitutional reforms. The elections were rigged and the press gagged recently. In Zambia, we know the story of how the Chiluba regime harassed, intimidated, jailed journalists and even banned some newspaper editions. Chiluba boasted about the need for accountability in Washington, but back home, he ran the most corrupt regime that now he faces corruption charges in the courts of law. Thanks to the media, indeed, they exposed the plunder of the Zamtrop account and others he was sweeping under the carpet. The media therefore has a key agenda setting role. It ought not to succumb to such whims as those of one, Alex Akinyele former Nigerian Minister of Information in the repressive Sani Abacha regime, who stated, “To criticize Nigeria is to criticize God!” (World Press Review, Feb 1993) No wonder his compatriot, Adeyinka Adeyemi, a Nigerian journalist and Shorenstein Fellow, Harvard University observed, “….Free press is not attainable in Nigeria in the foreseeable future until the country adopts, sustains and perfects a solid democratic culture, an independent judiciary and respectable apolitical
3 military which is eager and willing to serve under an elected commander-inchief…..the vibrant Nigerian press can be trusted to steer Nigeria towards these goals.” (Nigerian Press under review, May 1995). The media and the powers that be (government) has this cat and mouse relationship. Democracies must reckon with two facts of public life. First, many politicians, though paying lip service to the indispensability of a free press, would shackle and control it if they could. Secondly, a free society which expects responsible conduct a free press, must go on tolerating some – often shocking – irresponsibility as the price of liberty because a press which is free to be responsible must also be free to be irresponsible. Society is the ultimate judge. A free press will never be a nice press. If the media is not aware of its responsibility, it cannot perform its functions adequately, but if it is not free, it cannot perform at all. Consequently, the amount of direct pressure which society can afford to put on the media is limited. Responsibility cannot be enforced because that inhibits the free flow of information and discussion and undermines the independence of media required to service society. That is the reason why the media in Zambia is fighting for the enactment of such laws as the Freedom of Information Act, which will guarantee free flow of information and the people’s right to know information which the rulers would rather sweep under the carpet. Freedom of the press is therefore an inalienable human right. 3. Media and People’s Rights In a democracy, all rights, including rights of expression, belong to the people. It is the people who bestow on the government, certain powers in order that society may function. As a result, the media and the people resist all governmental attempts to limit their access to news and information. The media has therefore involved itself in the sole of self-appointed monitor of official life, recorder of public events and even unofficial arbiter of public behaviour. The Zambian media therefore has to transform itself into a fairly non-ideological (non-partisan) communication instrument, in step with the desires, dynamism and diversity of the country itself. It must earn itself public trust by paying attention, reporting, covering, digging, and investigating those issues that affect the daily lives of ordinary Zambians. The public’s right to know must remain the core of free press philosophy and should guide the way the media conducts itself. 4. Government Secrecy Free flow of information, the competition of ideas, and the constant scrutiny of government activity, are essential to democracy. Government is the engine of development in the country – it controls the resources and means of production. It makes policy decisions that are interpreted into development projects that affect the lives of all the people. It should therefore be transparent and accountable in its operations.
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The media has the responsibility to ask questions and probe for real answers on behalf of the public they serve. It has the most important means to accomplish the task of development. Organised society has devolved itself various methods top keep secrets and suppress information that such organisations deem negative to its image. The biggest culprit is the one which claims to be the servant of the people, the one which should be the most transparent, accountable and responsive to the people – GOVERNMENT! Unfortunately, all governments prefer to operate in secrecy, even in a democracy – all in the name of national or public security. In Zambia, laws such as the Official Secrets Act and the Penal Code are used to suppress information from the public. MISA-Zambia has identified 37 such pieces of legislation on our statutes, which impinge on press freedom! The so called “discovery” of minerals in the North-western Province, is a case in point. It has been an open secret for years that the NWP would be the next Copperbelt as it possessed vast mineral resources, which, for reason only known to those with access to official records, remained unexplored. The oil and gas explorations in the Zambezi west bank region have been a top secret. But the locals have known this for years; even the existence of diamonds in the same area is not talked about now. We however, know the area to be part of the Angola-Botswana-Namibia diamond field. Now there is song and dance about the prospects in NWP after being neglected in the past 42 years! How can development be planned when information is shrouded in a veil of official secrecy? In whose benefit? 5. Role of Rural Media in people-centred development Blame for the marginalisation of the NWP in the economic development of Zambia cannot only be blamed on the government. The media has also played a big part in this conspiracy of silence. The NWP has also suffered neglect in the media coverage. The NWP is basically a rural area. The exploitation of its natural resources will soon transform the scenario. Along with such development will come the interest of the media. What type of media is needed in the NWP under these circumstances now that the bright city lights, with all is positive and negative baggage, are coming to “six-clock!”? A Rural Media, which will empower the people to participate effectively in the development process at the local level, would be the most ideal prospect for the NWP instead of the so called national media, whose main focus is advertising revenue and is far removed from the realities on the ground in rural Zambia! The link between agenda-setting role of the media and development derives from the fact that development is people-centred. The people should determine what kind of development they want and how it should be achieved. Development cannot be imposed on people by outsiders.
5 If the media are to act as development agents in rural communities, the ideas that are proposed should be seen to come from the people and not imposed on them.
6. Media for the People The best way to involve the people in development projects is through the tool of rural media. In the conventional sense, the media, in any given situation, sets the agenda. Ideas are generated by reporters and editors in the newsroom. News and editorial content is shaped, deliberately and carefully planned and solicited from the public by reporters. They choose the topic, ask the question and write the stories. News sources and newsmakers rarely have a say on the newsroom decision making process of what stories to be broadcast or published, what slant, how much space or time allocated and the priority – whether front page main story or headline news. The editors decide the importance of the story. The issues the media carries is the brain child of the editors. The have the final say! This scenario differs from the set up in the Rural Media concept. The Rural Media is for, by and about the rural people. News, views and adverts for the rural community. It is compiled, printed and published or broadcast in the locale which it is meant to serve by rural people themselves in language spoken by the majority of the people for whom it is published or broadcast. Many so called rural newspapers published in English, compiled, printed and published in urban centres, transported to the country side ( like Ngoma News), are rural only in name. The information is urban in outlook. For radio, the programmes broadcast in vernacular by ZNBC, for example, suffer from similar urban production syndrome. Production and broadcasts are done in the ivory tower of Lusaka. ZNBC does not even have regional stations in the provinces nor regional or district reporters for that matter! The advent of community radio has mitigated the situation as production is now done in the localities where the stations are instead of the detached Lusaka. The print media however, is still shackled to the Lusaka syndrome – the mainstream national media, i.e., Times of Zambia, Zambia Daily Mail , Post, Mail and Guardian and Monitor-Digest newspapers, are all printed and published in Lusaka reflecting news, views and events about the urban elite. 7. Participatory Rural Media Participatory rural media is by rural people who contribute to its reportage. The editorial committee is not the sole determinant of content. News sources and the community as a whole have equally decisive input. Reporting is not restricted to staff, other people in the community, including illiterates, also report. Illiterates dictate information to the literate who write it
6 down for the editorial staff to rewrite and edit. The illiterate reporter however is credited with the by-line. Seeing or hearing their names in the newspaper or on radio news reports, encourages them to read and write and become literate also. It created pride and self esteem. The illiterate are the majority is our communities ( 60% in Africa). By actively contributing to the production of their local media, they will be helping to shape the agenda of their community. The number of illiterates is higher in rural areas, especially among women. Half the population of Africa is illiterate. It is hard to communicate new ideas to illiterates or maintain old ideas for that matter. One has to rely on memory. The human mind, however, has limits to what it can remember, particularly unfamiliar information. Writing and reading skills are therefore very essential for efficient dissemination of information and knowledge. Written information can be stored and retrieved. Information is preserved intact and hardly depreciates with time and space like what happens to our traditional history, culture and heritage – it is being forgotten and lost.. Such information is less reliable for development purposes than the written word. Therefore, it is important for rural people to learn how to read and write. Rural media has a big role to play in literacy education. 8. Reciprocal Agenda Setting Model In this model, all sectors of the rural community contributed information. All developmentally influential sectors have an input in the rural media production. The sectors represent the individual in the extended family, men, women, youth, local political leadership, traditional leadership, government workers, the church, cooperatives and interest groups (civil society).
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Women’s group
Individuals in the extended fam
Youth groups
NGOs/CBOs
Local political leadership
Traditional media
Rural media
Traditional leadership
Government workers
Interest groups
Cooperatives
Men’s group
Religious groups
Professional groups
All sectors submit on issues that it wants published or broadcast. The task of editorial staff is to edit, prepare, compile and produce stories and programmes. It is important that editorial staff give as much space or airtime as their own. This way, the community will participate in agenda-setting functions of the media.
8 9. Traditional media In a village situation, symbols, folklore, oral literature (poems, idioms, proverbs, songs), music, dance, drama, etc, play key role in expressing concerns of society. Traditional media permeates every fabric of rural community. It is an effective agenda setter. The Makishi dancer/singer makes running commentaries on community issues, even about the chief’s behaviour; girls sing laments of their mothers abandoned by men folk who have been attracted from the village by the bright city life, etc. Issues can be reflected by rural media to spread the agenda to the community. The pivotal role and the impact it has on the lives of the community must be recognised. All rites, ceremonies, traditions and customs in our cultures permeate the life of the rural population. One of the most emotive social-cultural-political issues in rural communities, for example, is witchcraft. What role can the rural media play? The modern rural media therefore, to be effective and relevant to the lives of the rural community, must embrace the traditional media in order for the people to claim ownership of the contemporary media system. 10.
Functions of editorial staff in rural media set up
The editor and staff have to exercise the gate-keeping function to determine what stories to be used, objectivity, balance, language and other editing requirements. They must balance the community interests and the selection of material should not be biased. They should be sensitive to different and competing interest groups. The editor and staff have the final control of the content of what is to be published or broadcast. They therefore have to exercise journalistic responsibility and editorial independence. It is unworkable if the rural media is politically and religiously controlled because it will reflect opinion and views different or opposite to those of the people in the community. The best model would be a cooperative ownership to ensure editorial independence and unimpeded flow of information. Otherwise, it would be labelled as an MMD, UPND, PF, Catholic or Pentecostal mouthpiece, thus loosing credibility in the public eye. Sectors of the community can pool resources on a cooperative basis to start a local media. Then they would make in-kind contributions (e.g. chickens, eggs, goats, pigs, crops, handcrafts and other consumable for sale) to buy duplicating paper, stencils, ink, typewrite/computer, photocopier/printer and other printing material, it it is a publication. If lucky, solicit donor support to kick start you local media – newspaper or radio.
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Viability
One of the biggest problems facing community media is financial sustainability. Is it viable? However, it is possible for a rural media to be self sustaining and viable with good management. It can slowly accumulate profits from sales and advertising from the local population and business community. Self supporting revenue can account for 20% sales and 80% revenue, it has a good business plan and commercial acumen. We always underestimate the capability of the rural community to generate advertising revenue because the media is used to corporate advertising in the big cities. However, the village grocery shopkeeper, cobbler, beer brewer and other rural tradesmen, the teacher, church leader, ox-cart transporters, can advertise their business too. The management of rural media needs to adopt an aggressive advertising strategy, soliciting adverts physically. With the liberalised economy where many people are involved in the “Tuntemba� economy�, business is very competitive and many marketeers and shop owners, facing stiff competition from street vendors, would be willing to advertise their business. The advantage of rural media is that since most of the staff is volunteers, the bulk of the expenditure is on production and not salaries. 12.
UNESCO Rural Media Objectives
The importance of rural media is recognised by UNESCO which recognise he following objectives, according to its World Communication Report: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
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To ensure continuing education for the rural population To keep rural population regularly informed of local, regional, national and international events. To provide the audience with practical information to improve cultural techniques, health, economics and social conditions. To encourage the habit of newspaper reading. To initiate the establishment of decentralised local media and to help the rural population to learn express itself in the media. To ensure the participation of the reader/listener/viewer in the process of economic and social development. To provide an instrument for dialogue between the administration (government/local authority) and the rural population. Conclusion
Rural media also sets agenda to central government regarding what development issue planners in the capital should consider in the overall national development plan (what input did the people have in the 5th National Development Plan? How much consultation took place?). Central government should take development agenda set in rural media very seriously. Development programmes from the people should be accommodated in the master national plan. In the absence of a rural media to articulate development issues for the people, one wonders how much input the people of Zambia have made to the 5th National Development Plan.
10 How much do they know of the contents of the plan? Is it not another “ivory tower� document planned, written and to be implemented by bureaucrats in distant Lusaka? What say do the people of Chinyama Litapi in Zambezi west bank have on the exploitation of oil in their area? What consultation did the people of Lumwana have before the mining invasion began? Rural media is crucial in contributing to positive developmental change in rural communities. a. Provide functional knowledge: e.g., nutrition, child care, house keeping, hygiene, disease prevention and cure, alleviation of hunger, disease and ignorance. b. Promote useful change: hard work, encourage all sectors of the community to actively participate in the economy, adopting appropriate technology, promoting useful innovations, etc. c. Uniting leaders and people: channel of mutual communication between rules and ruled d. Serve s window to the world: enable outside world to see life of a village community and attract donor aid. e. Safe guarding cultural independence: safe-guarding, conserving and promoting practices which are useful to the rural community so as to maintain their independence. Encourage young to learn and preserve their culture, be proud of their heritage and protect their historical legacy. The link between the agenda-setting role of the media and development therefore is vital if there is to be meaningful and beneficial gains for the people. As catalysts for change, the media has to be responsible to reflect the views, hopes and aspirations of he people. There is therefore great need to promote rural media as an instrument for human and economic development in rural Zambia. Ends