Perspectives on Political Communication in Africa by Bruce Mutsvairo & Beschara Karam

Author:Bruce Mutsvairo & Beschara Karam
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

8.3 Media Landscape

Following the proclamation of national independence in 1975, the Mozambican state nationalised the media organisations of the colonial period (Rádio Clube de Moçambique became Rádio Moçambique) and also created new ones (the Mozambican Information Agency, Agência de Informação de Moçambique, and the Media Bureau, Gabinete de Comunicação Social, now called the Media Institute, Instituto de Comunicação Social). At the time, restrictions on freedom of expression and press freedom were implemented through severe censorship enforced by the Ministry of Information (Magaia 1994).

With the enactment of the Press Law in 1991, new media organisations began to emerge; generally speaking, they were independent. Although they were concentrated in Maputo, they became established as true focal points of a more open, alternative public debate, unlike what had happened during the single-party system after independence. The passing of the Right to Information Law in 2014 was another milestone in the country’s development. Mozambique joined a small selection of African countries that already had a right to information laws,2 which are important instruments for encouraging transparent governance and citizens ’ effective participation in managing public funds. Perhaps for that very reason, in the context of countries in Southern Africa, Human Rights Watch placed Mozambique at the same level as Botswana, Mauritius and Namibia, which have seen significant press freedom improvements.3 The country’s rating in the 2015 Press Freedom Index also rose,4 from 2 to 2.23:5 Mozambique was given 44 points (with 0 being good and 100 being bad). However, despite the advances, journalists continue to complain about government interference in the media (Chichava and Pohlmann 2010: 132–133).

Three newspapers of reference stand out in the Mozambican media landscape: Notícias, Diário de Moçambique and O País. The weekly publications Zambeze, Magazine Independente, Canal de Moçambique, Savana, Dossiers e Factos, Público and A Verdade generally take an editorial position that challenges the government’s actions. Public newspapers (the Notícias daily newspaper and the weekly Domingo), on the other hand, focus their stories on government accomplishments.

A peculiar feature of the Mozambican media system, according to Salgado (2012), is the proliferation of ‘fax newspapers’, such as MediaFax, Expresso and Imparcial, which have considerable circulations. These newspapers are printed in A4 format and faxed to subscribers, in a clear attempt to reduce the high costs of printing and distribution. They are, most of the time, linked to journalists who originally worked for other newspapers but decided to develop their own media projects.

There are some digital daily newspapers (e.g., Expresso da Tarde, Correio da Manhã, Diário do País) but in practice they are only accessible to workers and/or civil servants at public and private institutions. Despite its growth, the percentage of Internet users is very low when compared with other parts of the world. According to the Internet World Stats website, in March 2017, 1,834,337 users had Internet access in Mozambique, representing 6.2% of the population. Nonetheless, it is important to point out that the percentage of users is growing fast, mostly in urban centres, owing to the availability of cheaper access services.

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