The Independent Press and Politics in Africa

Abstract

The independent press in Africa's multiparty states of the 1990s has developed a confrontational relationship with governments, which is largely being brought about by the press's own unprofessional behaviour. The confrontational relationship is causing governments to introduce measures, legal and otherwise, aimed at making the press behave responsibly, in the absence of effective self-regulating mechanisms by the press itself. These measures are likely to lead to the subjugation of the independent press by governments once again and the reintroduction of dictatorship in Africa at the turn of the millennium and beyond. When this happens, the independent press will have to bear the bulk of the blame for loss of press freedom and democracy.