ABSTRACT
In the field of political communication, formal media such as television, radio and the press have been conceptualized as crucial in communication between the state
and citizens. In the late 1950s and 1960s, media were considered to play an important role in the creation of harmonious nation-states, particularly in developing countries that had just obtained independence and whose borders were imposed as artificial boundaries during colonial rule (Lerner 1958; Pye 1963; Schramm 1964; Lerner and Schramm 1967). Media could aid in the process of building a loyal citizenry and in bringing about economic and political development. The key role of media in national development justified government control of media and saw the establishment of state monopolies in the press and broadcasting in many developing countries. In the context of the Cold War, the First World did not consider the libertarian model of media-state relations to be desirable for developing countries as it could increase their vulnerability to the dangers of communism. State ownership of media was crucial in order to guide the process towards the development of fully fledged nation-states. However, perceptions on the normative role of media changed fundamentally after the end of the Cold War in the late 1990s and early 2000s when a consensus emerged that liberal democracy was the best recipe for development in Africa (Abrahamsen 2000). Key principles of a liberal democracy included frequent conduct of free and fair elections; the existence of multiple political parties; and respect for basic human rights such as freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of association. In a liberal democracy, media fulfil an important role in strengthening the democratic process and holding government to account over its performance. Mass media – and particularly the press – are expected to act as watchdogs guarding against possible abuses of power by governments. They must act as a ‘fourth estate’. Press freedom is seen as a vital guarantee to enable the media to play this role. The state is expected to create an open environment in which different media can flourish and compete by abolishing its monopoly on broadcasting and the press in order to allow a range of private media to monitor state performance. Private media are then attributed with the potential to advance democratic values (DfID 2001; World Bank 2002; BBC World Service Trust 2006). With the gradual replacement of African one-party states with multi-party administrations in the late 1980s and early 1990s, many studies began to focus on the role of media in this transition process. Academic research on media and communication in Africa increasingly adopted the liberal-democratic model of media-state relations as the normative ideal in Africa. For example, Ogbondah sees the ideal role of the press in Africa as being free to ‘investigate and report the misconduct, corruption, illicit spoils, embezzlement, bribery, inefficiency and lack of accountability that have characterised post-independence African governments’ (1997: 291). Based on this ideal role specified for the media, scholars1 have then often assessed the extent to which media-state relations in Africa have met the key principles of the liberal-democratic model. Academic discourse on media, governance and democracy in Africa has been closely tied in with the perspectives of donor and civil society organizations like the Freedom Forum and Reporters
Without Borders (RSF ) that offer normative assessments of media-state relations worldwide against the benchmarks of the liberal model such as RSF ’s Press Freedom Index.2
