China Influences African Media

South Africa's The Globe and Mail published on 9 October 2018 an article titled "China Flexes Its Political Muscles in Africa with Media Censorship, Academic Controls" by Geoffrey York.

The author reported that African governments and businesses, eager for Chinese funds, are increasingly willing to suppress or censor viewpoints that Beijing does not like. Backed by dramatically rising investment and loans, Chinese influence is sharply increasing in African media, academia, politics and diplomacy.

China Silences African Columnist

Foreign Policy posted on 14 September 2018 an article titled "China Is Buying Africa Media's Silence" by Azad Essa.

A weekly columnist for South Africa's Independent Media, in which Chinese state-linked media hold a 20 percent stake, wrote a negative column on China's policy on Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province. Independent Media refused to run the column online and canceled the journalist's weekly column.

China Deals with Stereotypes of Africa

The Conversation published on 26 February 2018 a commentary titled "China's Media Struggles to Overcome Stereotypes of Africa" by Dani Madrid-Morales, PhD fellow at the City University of Hong Kong.

CCTV aired a comedy skit for this years's Annual Spring Festival Gala about the growing ties between China and Africa. Although it had to undergo careful government censorship, many Africans deemed the skit to be culturally insensitive or even racist.

The Conversation published on 6 March 2018 another commentary titled "What 'Black Face' Tells Us about China's Patronising Attitude towards Africa" by Roberto Castillo, Lingnan University.

Growing Challenges for Eritrea

The Institute for Defense Analyses published on 9 November 2017 a commentary titled "Eritrea--Will Declining Remittances Lead to Domestic Unrest?" by Sarah Graveline.

The author concludes that declining remittances from outside Eritrea and Europe's growing desire to limit Eritrean migration are challenging the government and may encourage increased domestic unrest.

10 Most Censored Countries: Horn Fares Poorly

The Committee to Protect Journalists released in April 2015 its list of 10 most censored countries.  The Horn of Africa fared poorly.  Eritrea was at the top of the list and Ethiopia in number four position.  Others on the list were North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Vietnam, Iran, China, Myanmar, and Cuba.

Human Rights Watch Report on Violations of Media Freedoms in Ethiopia

Human Rights Watch published in January 2015 a lengthy, critical report titled "'Journalism Is Not a Crime': Violations of Media Freedoms in Ethiopia."  The report describes the dire state of Ethiopia's media and the resulting impact on freedom of expression and the media.

It concludes that "the ruling party has treated the private media as a threat to its hegemony, and is using various techniques to decimate private media, independent reporting, and critical analysis, with drastic results." 

Press Censorship and the Horn of Africa

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has just released its list of 10 Most Censored Countries. The Horn of Africa performed poorly. According to the CPJ, the most censored country in the world is Eritrea, followed by North Korea, Syria, Iran, Equatorial Guinea, Uzbekistan, Burma, Saudi Arabia, Cuba and Belarus.

Concerning Eritrea, the CPJ wrote that "only state news media are allowed to operate in Eritrea, and they do so under the complete direction of Information Minister Ali Abdu."

The six runner-up countries were Turkmenistan, China, Ethiopia, Vietnam, Sudan and Azerbaijan. Of the sixteen countries cited, three are in the Horn of Africa. The CPJ said that censorship in Ethiopia has become far more restrictive in recent years. In Sudan, security forces have increasingly adopted the technique of confiscating newspaper editions wholesale to inflict financial losses on publishers.

Click here to read the report.