media - The African Mirror

Apr

2024

Africa’s private wealth to jump to $4 trillion by 2034

PRIVATE wealth in Africa will leap 65% over the next decade to US$4 trillion in new annual estimates, fuelled by growth in fintech, eco-tourism and business process outsourcing. Additional sectors like software development, rare metals mining, green tech, wealth management, media, and entertainment will further bolster the continent's wealth surge, according to the Henley & Partners Africa Wealth Report 2024. The international wealth advisory firm said Africa now has US$2.5 trillion in investable wealth and its millionaire population is set to rise by 65% or 223,080. Non-state wealth in 2022 stood at US$2.1 trillion and was expected to grow by…

Jun

2023

By The African Mirror

Tunisian judge bars broadcast media from opposition conspiracy cases

NEWS

A Tunisian judge has barred radio and television news programmes from covering the cases of prominent opposition figures accused of conspiring against state security in recent months, the official news agency TAP said. The order fuels concerns over rights in Tunisia since President Kais Saied seized extra powers in 2021, moving to rule by decree and then assuming authority over the judiciary. "The investigating judge of office 36 of the anti-terrorism branch issues a decision banning media coverage of the two cases of conspiring against state security," the court's spokesperson Hanan el-Qadas told TAP. TAP later quoted Qadas as saying the order only concerned…

Apr

2023

By The African Mirror

How Africa’s media covered the Nigeria elections and why it matters

MEDIA FREEDOM

AN OPINION PIECE FOR BIRD STORY AGENCY BETWEEN February and March 2023, Nigerians went to the polls to elect a new President and parliament. This was the seventh national vote since Nigeria's transition from military rule in 1999. With one out of every four Africans being a Nigerian, the country is Africa's largest democracy and the most populous black nation globally. Its population is expected to overtake that of the US in size by 2050 to become the world's second-largest democracy. It's also the largest economy on the continent. Nigeria's new electoral law provided a five-month public campaign period for…

Aug

2022

By The African Mirror

The role of media in a Kenyan election: what you should know

MEDIA FREEDOM

TRADITIONALLY, political debates have been shaped by mainstream media. Kenya’s mainstream media, however, remain strongly wedded to factional ethnic and class interests. This has undermined their capacity to facilitate fair and open debate, most evidently during elections. Social media platforms have exploited this trust deficit, acting as important alternative sites for political deliberation. But they have also become powerful tools for disinformation and misinformation. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp are reframing democracy and the way citizens engage and organise in digital space. Through these platforms, politicians can engage directly with voters, which is especially important for independent candidates, who…

Mar

2022

By The African Mirror

From message to violence: what to watch for in the media ahead of Kenya’s elections

MEDIA FREEDOM

AS Kenya heads towards elections, concerns about the outbreak of electoral violence tend to rise. Existing research has offered several explanations for the violence. These include weak political parties, perceptions that elections are high stakes for different communities, and land grievances. Authors ADITI MALIK, Assistant Professor, Political Science, College of the Holy Cross PHILIP ONGUNY, Associate Professor, Université Saint-Paul / Saint Paul University The evidence for these explanations is compelling. For example, the weakness of parties has meant that political patronage has usually trumped policy proposals in Kenya. In a related vein, grievances over the distribution of land have provided…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

Public trust in the media is at a new low: a radical rethink of journalism is needed

MEDIA FREEDOM

A recent report by an independent panel on the ethics and credibility of South Africa’s news media makes for worrying reading. The panel, headed by retired judge Kathy Satchwell, was commissioned by the South African National Editors’ Forum following a series of ethical lapses by the Sunday Times. The paper dominated the country’s media landscape for over 100 years. As the largest by circulation, it was also considered the most powerful newspaper. HERMAN WASSERMAN, Professor of Media Studies in the Centre for Film and Media Studies, University of Cape Town The lapses included factual inaccuracies in reports on allegations of…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

“The media plays a significant role in nurturing and sustaining a culture of democracy”

MEDIA FREEDOM

JAMESINA E KING THE African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) is considered as an arm of the African Union, founded in 2003 to promote good governance on the continent. Its process provides a platform for experience sharing, reinforcing best practices and building a bridge between citizens and governments. Our core mandate is to conduct country reviews to assess how member states are performing in the four main governance aspects known as APRM Thematic areas; namely democracy and political governance; economic governance and management; corporate governance; and socio-economic development. Therefore, as APRM, we recognize that the media plays a significant role in…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

Sorting out fact from fiction when it comes to the safety of Ghana’s media practitioners

MEDIA FREEDOM

JACOB NYARKO, Lecturer of Communication Studies, University of Cape Coast THE ability of the media to function effectively is inseparable from democracy. And that functioning depends on cooperation from different entities in society. So a clampdown on media practitioners is an assault on democracy. In Ghana, which is regarded as a democracy, concerns have been raised about the spate of assaults and intimidation against media practitioners. These fears have been supported by the fact that Ghana has fallen in the ranking of the World Press Freedom Index. In our study we set out to try and identify the source of…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

The media have muted the voices of women during COVID-19: can the tide be turned?

MEDIA FREEDOM

THEODORA DAME ADJIN-TETTEY, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Rhodes University COVID-19 has distressed societies to the core. Among the fault lines, it has exposed is the fact that gender bias remains rampant in news coverage. A recent special report – The Missing Perspectives of Women in COVID-19 News – shows that too few women experts have been quoted on the pandemic in the media. The study looked at South Africa, Kenya, India, Nigeria, the US and the UK. Put together by the International Women’s Media Foundation and commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the report found that even when a…