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joinafrica features |
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Independent journalism in Africa is still a risky business
By Charles Onyango-Obbo
A week ago, Andrew
Mwenda, the political editor of the independent Ugandan paper,
Daily Monitor, and presenter of the radio talk show Tonight with
Andrew Mwenda Live, was released on bail after spending a
weekend in prison.
KFM, the station that is owned by Monitor Publications Ltd and
airs the programme was allowed to reopen last Thursday after
being closed for a week.
The closure of the station, and Mr Mwenda's arrest, followed
immediately after President Yoweri Museveni criticised him for
his programme and critical articles in the Daily Monitor.
OBSERVERS OF Ugandan politics won't have been surprised by the
events of the last two weeks. Uganda is East Africa's most
politically schizophrenic country. Over the years, its
governments have been prone to announcing an enlightened policy
today, then taking a retrogressive action the next day. What
still puzzles many people is that no matter how bad a Ugandan
president Ñ or any other African leader - can be, he can never
be lonely.
There are the usual hangers-on who feed on Big Men's need to be
flattered. But there are the well educated and widely travelled
people who play the role of the strongman's hatchet men and
agitators. By the time the Museveni government moved on KFM and
Mwenda, these agitators had shouted themselves hoarse demanding
drastic action. Many of these agitators, some paid by the State,
but several employed outside government - some are even
successful professionals abroad - often demand harsher action
than the government itself is able to take.
In the past, they have demanded that critical journalists be
charged with treason or called them terrorist collaborators. One
of them has spent years arguing that "anti-government"
journalists should be killed or have their offices firebombed.
These are people who wear tuxedos to dinner balls, argue with
authority about the world's best wines, can quote large chunks
of Shakespeare, are patrons of important charities, play golf,
and sit on the front row at Sunday mass.
As the Latin American musician Ruben Blades once sang of the
region's torturers, they support the same football club as you
do, and their children go to the same private school with yours.
Money can only be part of the reason for this self-debasement
because, as we have already noted, these hatchet men could do
well independently. Perhaps it is easier and safer to be a
cheerleader for a strongman than to oppose him. Being a
democracy campaigner and independent journalist in Africa is
still a risky business. We are comfortable with dealing with a
president's sycophants.
We understand their opportunism, and the more generous recognise
that they are doing it for an honourable reason - to get money
to put food on the family table. And sycophants make us feel
superior. Because we "haven't sold our souls," we think we are
better than them. But when a successful lawyer takes on a
dictatorship, loses his firm, is driven to bankruptcy by the
government and is abandoned by his wife in the process, it
creates a problem for us. We can accuse him of wanting to be a
martyr, of seeking publicity, being stupid and reckless, but we
can't fault him for cowardice or opportunism.
Most of all, we can't feel better than him. On the contrary, he
makes us feel guilty, and inferior to him. The sycophant makes
us feel better about ourselves. The brave freedom activist makes
us feel unworthy if we are not part of the fight on his side.
FOR THAT, he is hated. That is why the dictator tends to have
more friends than the freedom fighter. And the chap who said
that independent journalists be killed still gets invitations to
prestigious dinners as chief guest.
Charles Onyango-Obbo is Nation Media Group's managing
editor for convergence and new products.
E-mail:
cobbo@nation.co.ke
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