The Media Strategy of Danida - Media & Democracy

Media and Democracy

Danida's efforts for democracy and human rights through media support indeveloping countries have been evaluated

By Inge Estvad

"We want freedom of speech, we want a free press," said a remarkable majority of the Eastern Europeans who were interviewed by Western TV crews while crossing the border after the Berlin Wall had fallen in 1989. They did not talk about the right to travel without restrictions oranything else that they had been denied during the Communist regime. The subject that was so important to them that it was the first thing they thought of telling the news reporters, is mentioned in Article 19 of the UN Global Declaration on Human Rights (1948) about freedom of opinion and speech. And undeniably these rights are crucial in a democracy.

The public must be active participants in any process of democratisation. To be informed, the adult population of a country should not simply receive information. Critical questions about the authorities' administration of power should also be asked. The role of the press is to inform, to examine the background of the initiatives of those in power, and to ask critical questions. The press has been mentioned as the fourth estate.

That is how powerful it is. For that same reason the free press is subject to very difficult conditions in many developing countries. Those in power often prefer to operate covertly, and in several countries the news reporters are often willing to pass exactly that which the authorities want on to the public. If not, news reporters are imprisoned or liquidated. Even today these situations occur, even in countries where the process of democratisation has come a long way, such as in Burkina Faso where a well-known critical reporter, Norbert Zongo, was killed on December 13, 1998.

Therefore it is important that donor organisations support the development toward a free press. Since the beginning of the 1990's Danida has supported activities in the Third World to contribute to the promotion of democracy and human rights. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the subsequent termination of the Cold War helped to focus more on human rights, and Danida has been a catalyst in advancing this subject internationally.

The Danish support in this field has increased explosively during recent years. While DKK 17 million was appropriated in 1991, DKK 413 million was allocated in 1998 for projects in this category. A total of about DKK 800 million was granted between 1992 and 1997 to the support of free elections, reconstruction of legal sectors, promotion of free speech, and equal access to the democratic process. Today 4% of the total aid is spent on promoting democracy and human rights.

If we look solely at the media, Danida has contributed DKK 340 million over a 10-year period to 125 projects in 36 countries and to 7 regional projects. The largest sum, DKK 140 million, was granted in 1995-96. Since then, several projects have been terminated while new ones are ontheir way. Danida's attention has primarily been directed at radio projects and in-service training of media associates, although the establishment of media and press centres is also an area in which significant efforts have been made.

As for other projects sponsored or supported by Danida within the media sphere, privately owned newspapers with an independent attitude and newspapers specially published for ethnic groups can be included as well.

Evaluation

Since support to the promotion of democracy and human rights is still a relatively new field to Danish aid programs, Danida asked eight consultant agencies to examine whether the support is placed desirably in terms of including previous experiences into future work.

Among other things, the consultant agencies were to examine whether the activities that Danida has sponsored and still sponsors are relevant to the process of democratisation. What has been a success and what has not? To what extent have the projects rubbed off on the fragile democracies or oncountries that still do not respect democracy? How can efforts be improved?

Four crews visited Ghana, Mozambique, Guatemala and Nepal to give an aggregate overview of the support to the promotion of democracy and human rights in the countries in question. Meanwhile, four other crews were asked to look at cross-sectional themes: Election support, support to legislation, (peoples') participation in the process of democratisation and support to a free and independent press.

One additional crew of consultants created a synthesis of the reports of the eight other crews.

Danida - a Top Student

Here we will merely cite the report issued by the consultants of Oxford Research on Danish aid to the free press. The consultants visited media projects in Mozambique, Zambia, the Palestine Authority, and Israel. Projects in Peru, Vietnam and Bhutan have been analysed at the desks inDenmark. “Danida has largely been a top student and has followed the points in the media strategy that was put forth in 1994”, Oxford Research writes.

However it is difficult to state the effect of the support since no studies have been conducted on it and since it is hard to measure. Around 80% of the aid was granted to projects that sought to promote pluralism, especially through radio, and the promotion of the professionalism of media associates through education, along with the establishment of media networks through support to media centres.

Support to Independent Media

Among other things, the report concludes that it is more important to examine whether a medium is independent than to examine whether it is government-funded or privately owned when Danida is to decide to grant support.

It has previously been commonly accepted that private media were more free than government-sponsored media, but much research indicates that private media are often subject to commercial terms or controlled, for instance, by political or religious interests. Government-sponsored media,however, are not necessarily heavily controlled by the authorities. In several locations a decline in the enforcement of control has been observed, for example in the Vietnamese national television network.

One of the problems associated with sponsoring private media is that these media, newspapers as well as the electronic media, often reach but a limited audience, often only in cities in which the broadcasts are produced. Meanwhile, government-sponsored media with branches in other regions reach larger audiences, including the poor rural people that is the target group of Danida's poverty information campaign.

As for example, the report mentions Ghana, whose government-owned radio produces enlightening and educating broadcasts in local languages all over the country. The same goes for the government-owned Radio Mozambique and NBC (National Broadcasting Corporation) in Zambia.

Since government media are often economically starved, it occasionally happens that local stations or newspapers are shut down, and that is the reason why the report suggests that Danida take these media into consideration and examine whether the government media in question haveindependent boards or managements that might secure independence.

Another conclusion is that Danida should pay more attention to the media legislation - or rather the lack of it - in many developing countries. Less than 1% of the total support was spent in this field between 1990 and 1998. It is estimated that the development of democracy has come far enough inmany countries, and that the assistance to the development of media legislation is important to the continuous improvement of the free press. Even if there are still rulers who violate such legislation.

Training Is Important

As mentioned above, a large part of Danida's funds is granted to the education of journalists, technicians, editors, etc., by and large with some success. On the whole the recipients are very content, for instance in Bhutan, Vietnam, Nepal, Mozambique, and Zambia.

But using examples from a variety of countries, it has been suggested the support to be increased since it is possible within this particular field to make effective efforts to strengthen democratisation. The report raises the objection that the courses have not always hadrelevant content and that the selection of course participants can appear random. Similarly, in some cases an insufficient amount of media associates have been trained compared to the large amount that was appropriated totraining. For example, this goes for the Middle East and Nepal.

Among others, the content of the journalist courses in Nepal has been sharply criticised. The focus is solely on development goals instead of the strengthening of critical journalism on political topics such as corruption, nepotism, and the violation of human rights. Meanwhile, curriculum regarding agricultural and local community subjects is needed for the journalist education in Zambia.

The report also states that course participants should be selected on a broader basis. The tendency is that it is the top journalists - and the privileged ones - who participate in various additional educational courses. However, as the report states, it can be difficult to recruit journalistsoutside of the cities.

Media for the Rich

The report emphasises initiatives such as regional media centres. The co-operation between various countries on media initiatives can be fruitful in terms of strengthening democratisation. The resources and the base of power are larger, which can be significant when trying to include more reactionary countries in the process. Regional media centres also have better opportunities of offering specialised education compared to national ones.

The report also states that it is hard to trace how media support affects the poor since most media are located in large cities, they are owned and run by people from the higher social classes, and their target group is middle class people and above, even though human rights and democratisation to a large extent concern the poor and especially women. But it will also be a benefit to them down the road if a cautious press helps bring about changes in the living conditions in society, the report adds.

It is emphasised, however, that Danida sponsors newspapers and radio stations with particular target groups such as the Danish NGO KULU's radio project for women in Peru, which has existed for 8 years with more than DKK 17 million coming from Danida so far.

Support is also given to media that cater particularly to ethnic groups and deal with questions about their rights in society in local languages. Examples include regional media centres in Nepal and a periodical, El Regional, for an ethnic group (Native Indians) in Guatemala.

One problem mentioned in the report is Danida's wish to ensure economic sustainability in the media projects that receive support. Privately owned newspapers, radio stations and TV companies depend on advertisement sales. Government-sponsored media often receive insufficient funds from the government.

These are well-known problems in the Western world as well. But since Danida-sponsored media help promote democratisation, the report suggests project support to be stretched over longer periods than previously until the media find themselves on solid ground.

The same goes for the perception of the medium as an institution. There must be room for groping experiments and mistakes before project support is taken away.

Internet

The report also deals with the use of the Internet, which is only in use in a minimum of locations in the developing countries. Danida is preparing a strategy in this field, but other than the sponsorship of one Internet Café in Zambia this is basically uncharted territory as a means of neutralising the media control of those in power. Oxford Research writes that it is important for Danida to bring new technological developments into its strategic considerations since many of the countries supported by Denmark are better positioned today to utilise it.

The Internet continues to be expensive to establish in distant rural areas, and since the language of the Internet is English, language barriers are present as well. The authorities in certain locations do not allow for the establishment of telephone lines for Internet use since the Internet is an excellent means of mediating critique of rulers and can also cross national borders.

Harassment

As a counterpart in terms of media in the developing countries is the use of communication to develop the living conditions of the poor, such as the mediation of training and information. This is also about human rights - social as well as economic ones - but the challenge of this evaluation hasbeen to describe the projects that specifically deal with freedom of speech as a part of democratisation and as one of the political rights in the Declaration of the Rights of Man. This is the field within which the fiercest opposition is found, and the report gives examples of successes as well as failures. Or rather, of media that must overcome an incredible amount of harassment to be allowed to work according to schedule. Sometimes obstacles include delay of the issuance of licenses to run a radio station, a TV station or a newspaper, and sometimes a radio station receives a permit for another frequency than the one it applied for, which entails a more limited broadcast range.

Frequently the best and in some cases only equipment at TV stations is confiscated and used by the President at his convenience. Journalists and editors might also regress toward the self-censorship that was the very situation the in-service training of journalists was meant to prevent.

In some instances one can observe cases of mere prohibition. Or persecution, imprisonment and torture. However, there are also examples of media projects that have succeeded and thus helped improve the conditions for the people whom Danida seeks to support in achieving the rights that they are entitled to in a democratic society.

Inge Estvad is a freelance journalist and a former programme director Danmarks Radio specialising in communication in developing countries.

The evaluation can be acquired at Bech Distribution A/S (phone, fax ande-mail can be found at the top of the back page) or on the homepage ofEvalueringssekretariatet on the Internet: www.evaluering.dk

DANIDA PRIMARILY SUPPORTS THREE AREAS

RADIO

The radio medium is without competition as yet the most important mass medium in the developing countries. Newspapers are typically only published in the capital of the countries. Most often they are written in the European or national mother languages with which only a small segment of the population is familiar. Finally, newspapers can obviously only be read by people who have beentaught how to read - and that is often an insignificant segment of the population. TV is not very widespread in rural areas, partly due to the price and partly because of the lack of electricity. The radio, on the other hand, can receive signals even in the most isolated areas. It broadcasts in locallanguages that are mastered by everybody, and radio broadcasts are cheap to produce and almost free to receive. A transistor uses little energy and can be brought and used everywhere.

TRAINING

At radio stations as well as in newspaper offices in developing countries the journalistic work continues to be done by hand in several locations. For example, journalists write their manuscripts by hand without the help of any kind of modern technology, not even typewriters. And the training within this field is mediocre at best by our standards. Research techniques, interviewing techniques, source critique and mediation, written or through electronic media are educational areas on which people in the Western free world spend several years. It is therefore to the field of training that Danida has appropriated a large part of the support to free media, and this is where Danmarks Journalistiske Højskole (DJH - the Danish Journalism School) and others have been active partners. For instance, the Nordic-SADC Journalism Centre (NSJC) in Maputo, Mozambique, was established as an opportunity for education for journalists and other media associates in the SADC countries in 1993. The idea was to support the development of free and independent media in Southern Africa. DJH was the driving force in that project.

Much of the support allocated to training has been spent on the training of associates at TV and radio stations in technology as well as management, courses and workshops in media centres and study visits, for example in Denmark.

Media Centres

Increasingly, Danida supports the establishment of media/press centres. Not only does it strengthen the co-operation between media, but it is also in such centres that journalists can use the equipment that does not exist at their place of work. It might be Internet, copiers, encyclopaedias, etc., or it might be a rational aggregate purchase of newsprint by way of a co-operative effort by a group of editors, as it has been done in Burkina Faso. However, it can also be a central meeting point for trade union activities, or a kind of emergency central to deal with aggressions against journalists as it is the case in MISA in the Southern part of Africa, to mention some of the advantages of media centres. The disadvantages include finding money for financing and achieving agreement onmanagement, which can be difficult given the large amount of parties involved.

IMPRISONMENT AND MURDER

Since 1987 550 journalists have been killed world-wide. In 1998 alone 135 journalists were arrested and 25 were killed because of their profession. More than 50% of all countries on Earth have "very difficult" conditions in terms of free press. 80% have "difficult" conditions. The two groups make up 75% of the UN's member countries. Problems are mainly encountered in Africa,Asia, and some of the former Soviet republics.

Source: Committee to Protect Journalists,

International Press Institute,

Reporters Sans Frontiérs, April 1999

Above document provided as background for The Drum Beat #57

DANIDA, the Danish International Development Agency, supports communication for development. There is currently a policy revision taking place. These articles and activities indicate pathways for future activities relatingto communication for development. Not all activities are supported by DANIDA.

Inge Estvad (journalist, est@image.dk), Finn Rasmussen (Communication Adviser, IBIS Ecuador, frasmussen@andinanet.net) and Thomas Tufte, Ph.D. (Professor, Roskilde University ttufte@ruc.dk) gathered the material that provides comprehensive insight into the policies and programmes selected.