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Which Journalists, Which Media, Which Programming and for Which Public?
Calling for the mobility of journalism teachers, researchers and students in Africa
Prof. Gilbert MUBANGI Bet’ukany, University of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo
The last decade has seen a new era in communications in Africa. Mobile telephones have
penetrated the market like lightning, opening up the continent’s most remote areas; in several
countries, ICT development, especially fibre-optic connections, gives access to information
superhighways and therefore to worldwide information resources via the Internet; courses in
information and communication sciences are arousing keen interest in universities. Recently,
with help from the Rockefeller Foundation and UNESCO, continent-wide conferences have
been organised to reflect upon and structure the teaching of journalism. The implications of
this new situation are immense in terms of development, democracy, education, changing
mentalities and the way in which the media operates and is structured. This paper will
essentially discuss the Congolese experience in terms of the university training of journalists
and the way in which the media functions.
I. Dysfunctions (which strongly resemble a crisis)
1.1.
Initial (University) Training
The DR of Congo has several faculties, Departments and Institutes for Information and
Communication Sciences which disgorge trained journalists on to the market every year.
Today there are 9 journalism training Institutions:
1) University of Kinshasa (Department of Communication)
2) IFASIC: Faculty Institute for Information and Communication Sciences
3) The Catholic University (Faculty of Social Communication)
4) The Audiovisual Professional Training Centre (CFPA) in Matadi
5) University of Lubumbashi (Department of Information Science)
6) University of Kisangani (Department of Communication Sciences)
7) Higher Audiovisual Institute in Goma
8) Higher Audiovisual Institute in Bukavu
9) Congolese Audiovisual Institute (ICA)
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However, according to the study led by UNESCO in 2007, none of the DR of Congo’s
training institutions was classified as a ‘Centre of Excellence’ and none features on the list of
potential centres of excellence either. It is important to understand the reasons for such a
failure. The study reveals a series of shortfalls in teaching in Congolese universities. The
current Minister of Further Education is aware of this and is doing his best to bring about
change, but the problems are deep-rooted.
Despite training journalists, there is not a single journalism training institution in the Congo to
possess a radio, television or newspaper as tools to train the students. Five years ago the
Department of Communication at the University of Kinshasa received a gift of a radio and
television transmitter, but the project became a source of conflict and is now defined as a
“transversal” project, and thus out of the hands of the Department of Communication and its
initial training project.
Apart from the enormous problems of infrastructure, there is also the question of journalism
training programmes. There is a shared observation according to which the Lubumbashi
programme, devised by a group of communications professors, includes many weaknesses.
Journalism remains a professionalised course of study, but on completing their journalism
studies, Congolese students are incapable of writing an article in a newspaper or compiling a
radio or television report and the newspaper groups taking them on complain of this.
In addition to these weaknesses, favouritism is at play in attributing courses, resulting in
teachers with no training in communications obtaining tenure for essential courses in order to
supplement their income with the sale of syllabuses. We believe that teaching the basics of
journalism involves not only preventing the dangers of the ethical and deontological errors
that we currently deplore, but also ensuring the emergence of sound skills and the responsible
practise of the freedom of the press.
1.2.
Media Dysfunction in the DR of Congo
In March 2004, the “National Congress of the Congolese Press” was held in Kinshasa, which
brought together people working in the media in Kinshasa and the provinces. As a result of
this congress, the Congolese National Press Union (UNPC) and the Congolese Media
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Observatory (OMEC) were set up. Furthermore, a regulatory authority, the High Authority for
Media (HAM) has been made responsible for structuring and regulating the Congolese media.
Today, the Congo has over 200 listed newspapers, (only around one hundred of which are
published regularly) and around one hundred radio and fifty television channels. The
profession is getting organised. There is also an NGO which is active in the field of the media,
“Journalists in Danger”, to defend the freedom of the press in DR of Congo and subregion,
and associations such as ANEAP (National Association of Independent Audiovisual
Companies) and UCOFEM (Women’s Association of Congolese Journalists).
However, reticence, not to say suspicion, is felt by the Congolese people towards the media.
The reasons for this disenchantment cannot be explained away as merely a whim – over time,
this scorn has become rejection. It is also the result of a long history of the media’s
relationships and way of operating dating back to the colonial era. The history of the
Congolese media over the last few years remains marked by journalistic practice which does
not bring much credit to the profession. As a legacy of the Mobutu period, the Congolese
media has retained a journalistic practice known as “coupage” which involves corrupting
journalists so that they provide positive coverage in their reporting or articles. How could it be
otherwise, however, while the Congolese media still suffers from a very severe shortage of
funds and journalists are badly paid and do not even have contracts? Although certain former
journalists have replaced politicians at the head of some newspapers, the new media owners
still require political “sponsors” who, in exchange, demand a “sponsor’s” right to exercise
control over the paper’s editorial line. This all occurs as though “coupage” suits a fair number
of newspaper owners, who see in it a means to contain the pressure dissatisfied journalists
could exert. At the risk of compromising the integrity of their newspapers or television or
radio channels, which have to balance their accounts in order to survive, media owners have
come to tolerate practices which do not honour the profession. For this reason, Congolese
journalists decided to create a union to defend their interests.
The Congolese media is currently undergoing complete reorganisation. While the emergence
of a new generation of presenters (mostly women) of televised and radio news may be
observed, as well as an incontestable freedom of tone in the debates organised, it should also
be observed that programming media do not exist. Different channels are still trying to find a
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niche for themselves; the sets and programme listings are inadequate. This explains the fact
that programmes are never advertised and the channels’ aims never defined, competition is
limited to imitation (channels all reproduce the same kinds of programmes) and audience
measurement does not exist. Media houses are desperately short of funds.
1.3.
Communication and Information – Reasons for Cohabitation
It is vital to differentiate between information and communication in journalistic practice. It is
a fact that, among the errors with which journalists are reproached, the majority involves
communication blunders and the fact that we have neglected to inform. There are two
different registers here – communication concerns emotion, influence and entertainment,
while information involves reasoning, explaining and convincing. To use a short formula, it
could be said that where communication is aimed at the consumer, information is directed at
citizens. The major problem today, however, is the fact that communication has infiltrated all
aspects of life. It is in this context that journalists’ new familiarity is resulting in their
becoming partners who, without ever lying, always understand their “friends’” reasons and
always find extenuating circumstances for them. This cohabitation ends up creating a network
of connivance and intimacy between journalists, politicians and the world of economics.
Within every consumer, however, a citizen always lies sleeping. In the case of the Congo, the
citizen was awoken during Mobutu’s reign when communication largely supplanted
information because the latter was always biased. The phenomenon of the “parlementaires
debout” (street parliamentarians) in DRC constitutes a major filter for the population, the
majority of whom are illiterate, but avid for information. In a country where contestation and
mistrust with regard to politicians has reached its zenith, the “parlementaires debout”
represent a popular self-proclaimed authority to protect the population from misinformation.
They have been implicitly assigned to examine with a fine-tooth comb the content of
newspapers in order to root out the lies and traps of their backers. This is a textbook example
of how the reception, perception and selective memory of information by the population are
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conditioned by the culture, identity and social conditions of those receiving it, in accordance
with their expectations1.
It is for this reason that faced with the blunders, errors and faults of journalists, some refuse
all that is not said in internalised principles, and demand, purely and simply, that a public
contract be signed. The aim of this contract would be to act as a safeguard. The High
Authority for Media could thus dispose of an instrument to supervise the way in which the
media functions and, if necessary, penalize it.
II. Ending our Dependence
Among UNESCO’s criteria in its recent study is a call for the institution to have “an impact
on both initial training for inexperienced journalists and continual training for journalists
already working”. While it could be said that the DRC’s institutions provide initial training in
journalism, they have no means of mentoring journalists who are already working. With this
in mind, I and other academic colleagues are setting up a Centre of Scientific Research in
Communication for Organisations and the Media (CERESCOM) at the University of
Kinshasa, which could take charge of the continual training of journalists and members of
organisations, and serve as a platform for reflection on the media in DRC. We are currently
seeking collaboration and partners to help us carry out this project.
The media today has a network of image and information gathering such as the world has
never experienced before. For the media in Africa, however, the question is how to have
access to this information and image bank? Should it continue to steal images and reports
from western channels without scruple, scorning any licence protocol and any principles of
copyright?
In this respect, we should pay tribute to CFI (Canal France International) who, for 20 years,
has been helping the media in Africa. This company, part of France Télévisions, established
in 1989 and funded by France’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, aims at cooperation through
television. For 20 years CFI has been supplying African media with French programmes (TV
1
Ibid
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series, animation, film, sport, news, etc.) free of charge, in French, English, Arabic or
Portuguese. But for how much longer should we continue to take advantage of this
generosity?
Many African States will soon be celebrating the 50th anniversary of independence. It is time
for Africa to take responsibility for itself. On a political and economic level, regional
integration projects such as ECOWAS, SADC and others are clearly emerging. Universities
should think seriously about the role they have to play by supporting these ambitious projects
with reflection but also with concrete proposals. Why not consider projects in common within
the framework of subregions regarding university training and the way in which the media
operates. Teaching programmes could be envisaged which would facilitate the recognition of
diplomas and promote teachers’ and students’ mobility with a programme similar to the
ERASMUS programme in Europe, which would enable our students to go and study for a
year in another country.
With regard to the way in which the media operates, we could envisage the creation of an
open access image bank, programme banks to facilitate the free exchange of certain television
and radio programmes between African channels, information centres for technical, legal and
financial aspects, and so on. In this way, we could improve journalists’ professional practice
and enrich the programme listings by stocking them with our own productions (highlighting
reporting connected with economic, legal, health, democracy, security and other problems). In
the same order of ideas, an initiative such as this would allow Africa to safeguard and develop
its archives while taking control of the issues at stake in their use.
References
1) Bougnoux, Daniel, (1995), La communication contre l'information, (Communication
versus Information) Paris: Hachette
2) Dayan, Daniel (1992), "Les pouvoirs de la réception", (The Powers of Reception) Le
Débat, n°71, p. 146-162
3) Institut Panos Paris (2004), République démocratique du Congo : les médias sur la
voie de la restructuration, (Democratic Republic of Congo: the Media on the Path to
Reorganisation) Paris: Les cahiers des médias pour la paix n°2
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4) Meyer, Bernard, Les pratiques de communication, (Communication Practices) Paris,
Armand Colin, 2007
5) Mubangi Bet’ukany, Gilbert (2007), “Le parcours de la presse congolaise et le rôle de
l’oralité comme relais de l’information en Afrique” Les enjeux de l’information et de
la Communication, (The Congolese Media’s Journey and the Role of Orality as a way
of Relaying Information in Africa – The Issues at Stake in Information and
Communication) [online] http ://w3.u-grenoble3.fr/les enjeux/2007/mubangi
6) Wolton, Dominique (1997), Penser la communication (Thinking Communication),
Paris: Flammarion
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