Convenor(s)
Frère Marie-Soleil / ReSIC-ULB/FNRS
Maupeu Hervé / LAM-UPPA
During the past years, several African countries have adopted new laws that are threatening press freedom. Four main issues will be tackled. For the past 15 years, a first argument to be put forward to restrict press freedom is the threat of terrorism. A second argument used is the prevention of hate speech. In many countries, the laws preventing hate speech can be used to control the freedom of expression. How is the contestation against those laws organized in countries where Human Rights NGOs are not as lively as they used to be in the 1990s? How were these laws implemented since they were adopted? Did political leaders manipulate them for electoral purposes? What is the jurisprudence generated around these new texts? To which extend are the Internet and social media affected by these media laws? Have these new nor push the journalists into modifying their professional practices? These new press laws have been analyzed so far mainly by researchers focusing on media studies or specialized in human rights. Other perspectives especially in political sciences could shed another light on this phenomena.
« Des lois pour réduire au silence : les nouvelles réglementations liberticides en matière de liberté d’expression »
Depuis quelques années, de nombreux régimes politiques adoptent des lois liberticides en matière de presse. Quatre entrées principales guideront la réflexion. Depuis une quinzaine d’années, un premier argument mis en avant pour limiter la liberté d’expression réside dans la menace du terrorisme. Un second argument est celui du risque constitué par les messages de haine. Dans de nombreux pays, les lois interdisant ces messages de haine peuvent être utilisées pour contrôler la liberté de parole. Comment s’organise la critique de ces lois dans un contexte où, dans de nombreux pays africains, les ONG des droits de l’homme n’ont plus le vent en poupe comme dans les années 1990 ? Comment ces nouvelles lois ont-elles été mises en œuvre ? Les gouvernants en ont-ils abusé à des fins notamment électoralistes ? Comment Internet et les réseaux sociaux sont-ils affectés par ces lois ? Ces normes ont-elles amené les journalistes à changer leurs pratiques ? Ces lois ont intéressé jusqu’ici les spécialistes des mass media des droits de l’homme. D’autres perspectives notamment de sciences politiques pourraient éclairer ce phénomène.
Lenoble-Bart Annie / LAM, Université Bordeaux Montaigne
Quelques repères sur l’évolution de la liberté de la presse en Afrique.
Avec la christianisation et la colonisation du continent a été introduite la presse. C’est dire que la liberté u journalisme a connu, dès le départ, des limites certaines. Pourtant, comme ailleurs, ceux qui voulaient s’exprimer ont su jouer des contraintes et de pratiquer une certaine liberté de parole, non sans risques. les indépendances ont fait naître des rêves de liberté, vite contredits par des législations répressives. Le verrouillage des media (anciens et nouveaux) plus ou moins prononcé selon les Etats et les époques, s’est fait sous différentes formes dont certaines ont eu une existence for t longue (exemple des télévisions d’Etat). A travers des études de cas, nous essaierons de donner quelques illustrations de l’évolution de la liberté de la presse dans différents pays africains.
Wolf Tom / IPSOS-Kenya
Leashing a Lion?: Containing the “Threat of Violence” from Voter-Intention Surveys in Kenya’s 2013 General Elections.
Following the widespread violence triggered by the announcement of the results of Kenya’s 2007 election, many Kenyans – and others- feared this could again occur in the subsequent (March 2013) election. As such, various measures were put in place to prevent it.
Among the alleged causes of that violence were the ‘false expectations’ of victory raised by pre-election voter-intention surveys, which had all showed Raila Odinga defeating Mwai Kibaki. As the 2013 election approached, similar polls, while revealing a tightening of the race between Odinga’s CORD coalition and Uluru Kenyatta’s Jubilee, all showed that a second round, run-off contest was inevitable, since neither of the main candidates appeared likely to attain the required 50%+1.
Well before the election, however, anti-Odinga forces had been railing against such surveys, blaming them for the violence following the previous election, while calling for legislation that would limit if not eliminate the threat to stability that they purportedly constituted.
This paper aims to explain the origin of such fears, ad to consider the measures/tactics employed to address them in the context of increasingly tense pre-election period. In doing so, it issues relevant to current, post-election atmosphere, in which civic space has come under increasingly pressure, space that inevitably impedes upon such survey firms and the media through which their work is disseminated.
Khagoitsa Michelle Mercy / Universität Hamburg
“Enemies within?” Media politicization, controversial press laws and press freedom in Kenya
Freedom of the press and its role in democratic functioning in Kenya are often threatened by politically motivated legislations. Since the transition to multiparty democracy in 1992, Kenya has witnessed gradual growth of media and emerging debates on its role in democratization. Government responses to independent media coverage and reports on politically sensitive matters shape emerging resistance to critical journalism. This phenomenon was more prominent after the enactment two controversial media laws in 2013 that critics considered a serious blow to freedom of the press. The politically motivated media legislation infringe on press freedom desired in the emerging kenyan multiparty democracy. this paper seeks to critically analyse the two media laws and assess their impact on independent journalism in Kenya. This paper pays special attention to how political control by the state and media ownership shape media legislation and affect press freedom in the new multiparty democracy in Kenya.
Muntunutwiwe Jean-Salathiel / Université du Burundi
La loi sur la presse au Burundi post-conflit: entre ouverture politique et fermeture des possibles.