 |
| CCTV's East Africa operations are headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. (CCTV) |
Will China's quickly expanding media
presence in Africa result in a fresh, alternative, and balanced perspective on
the continent--much as Al-Jazeera altered the broadcast landscape with the launch of its English
service in 2006--or will it be essentially an exercise in propaganda?
Beijing's soaring investments in
Africa, which rose 87%
last year according to China Radio International, include a heavy concentration
in the media, especially in Kenya. This year China launched CCTV
in East Africa with its headquarters in Kenya's capital, Nairobi. The state
broadcaster has 50 local staff here and 14 correspondents across the continent
in South Africa, Nigeria, Somalia, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and Senegal with plans to
expand to 150 staff, according to operations manager and Editor Robert Soi.
Since January, Kenyans have been able to hear a daily one-hour broadcast of
CCTV's "Africa Live," and the channel plans to become an all news,
24-hour channel similar to France 24 or CNN by 2015.
The expansion comes as other,
predominantly Western media houses are shrinking their media presence in East
Africa; BBC has been forced to cut a number
of correspondents and France 24 announced a merger with Radio France
Internationale to contain costs, for example. In addition to competitive salary
offers being welcomed by many journalists looking for
work, many locals hope CCTV's heavy investment will allow more
detailed, nuanced reporting. Some local journalists in Nairobi tell me they
grow weary of the West's often limited, negative coverage of East Africa. A
local Nairobi radio presenter once referred to the West's media coverage of
Africa as 'burning-tire journalism' -- since only a handful of foreign
correspondents are based on the continent and are reduced to covering only
major disasters due to funding and logistical constraints.
According to Soi, the new broadcaster
strives to be objective. "We cannot avoid the key stories in Africa so we
try to be very objective. Just because China is interested in Khartoum, Sudan,
for instance, does not mean we only cover this country -- we cover the whole
story and that includes South Sudan." But Soi admits there are subjects
that generally aren't touched, such as criticism of local Chinese investments.
Instead, "We try to portray more positive news," Soi said. "You
can't talk badly about Chinese interests in Africa."
CCTV has made no effort to disguise
its public-relations aims. "Many media do not give Africans a correct
image of China, its culture and its plans in the continent," Beijing's
ambassador to Kenya, Lui Guanguyuang, said during the broadcaster's local
inauguration in January. The ambassador called on CCTV to portray "a
success story that is development for our partners." Indeed, according to
a 2010 Oxford
study, China's media investment in Africa is primarily designed to
improve foreign and economic ties and counterbalance the negative reporting of
both China and Africa found in Western media.
Now, African journalists at CCTV,
especially Kenyans at the heart of China's operation, will have to navigate the
delicate path between reporting these "positive news stories" and
censoring their own coverage. The challenge is particularly acute given
increasing media
training and exchange programs offered to African journalists by
China.
Indeed, China's poor press freedom
record at home is reflected in some of its media investments in Africa. Chinese
media investments tend to support state
broadcasters over private media; including those state broadcasters
with poor press freedom records such as the national radio of Equatorial Guinea
and the state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcast Holdings Company. Also, the Chinese
telecom giant ZTE is conducting a major overhaul on Ethiopia's
telecommunication system with a US$ 1.7 billion investment, according to the Oxford study.
Both China and Ethiopia have a track record of imprisoning
journalists and bloggers as well as blocking critical Web sites; no
doubt this investment will allow the Ethiopian censors greater reach to silence
their critics.
But Africa's political elite, even in
places like Kenya with a fairly robust free press, will not oppose China's
media advancements in Africa. China is the continent's leading trading partner
and nearly all African governments tend to agree with their Chinese
counterparts that the press should focus on collective achievements and
mobilize public support for the state, rather than report so-called
"negative news." During January's launch of CCTV, Kenyan Vice
President Kalonzo Musyoka called on the new station to "cast a new image
of the continent [since Africa] is often shown as the continent of endless
calamities."
"It will be here for the long
haul," Soi told me. "Just as the BBC Africa has sold very well over
here, CCTV will also leave a footprint."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Rhodes is CPJ’s East Africa consultant, based in Nairobi.
Rhodes is a founder of southern Sudan’s first independent newspaper. Follow him
on Twitter: @africamedia_CPJ
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment