"This book explores the relationship between the safety of journalists and self-censorship practices around the world, including local case studies and regional and international perspectives. Bringing together scholars and practitioners from around the globe, Journalist Safety and Self-Censorship p
...
rovides new and updated insights into patterns of self-censorship and free speech, focusing on a variety of factors that affect these issues, including surveillance, legislation, threats, violent conflict, gender-related stereotypes, digitisation and social media. The contributions examine topics such as trauma, risk and self-censorship among journalists in different regions of the world, including Central America, Estonia, Turkey, Uganda and Pakistan. The book also provides conceptual clarity to the notion of journalist self-censorship, and explores the question of how self-censorship may be studied empirically." (Publisher description)
more
"The definition of censorship denotes direct or overt restriction on free expression or freedom of the media. The popular understanding of self-censorship involves a person’s involuntary self-silencing. A journalist’s wilful, personal, intentional self-censorship, at times motivated by selfish m
...
otives, is often overlooked especially when there is complicit acceptance of political perspective or financial interest, or normalization/naturalization of unethical practices. Systems and ideologies can condition individuals to self-censor using what Louis Althusser has termed Ideological State Apparatuses and Repressive State Apparatuses, including interpellation. The Zimbabwean Crisis that has resulted in the polarization of Zimbabwean media along political lines demands an evaluation of the notion of self-censorship. Instead of merely focusing on the involuntary nature of self-censorship, there is need to assess instances when journalists self-censor and selfishly comply with political and commercial interests at the expense of serving the lofty ideals of the public good and public interest. Numerous examples exist where Zimbabwean journalists were abused and their rights violated leading to the adoption of self-preservation by such journalists and others when faced with the choice of whether to write or not to write, to tell or not tell. However, journalists are systematically recruited into party and commercial systems, and they have comfortably adopted a cosy demeanour to the extent of collaborating with powerful interest groups and formations. When journalists self-censor not because of fear of violence or threats or other safety concerns, it undermines the transcendental ideal of providing information as a public good and in the public/national interest." (Abstract)
more
"This handbook attempts to fill the gap in empirical scholarship of media and communication research in Africa, from an Africanist perspective. The collection draws on expert knowledge of key media and communication scholars in Africa and the diaspora, offering a counter-narrative to existing Wester
...
n and Eurocentric discourses of knowledge-production. As the decolonial turn takes centre stage across Africa, this collection further rethinks media and communication research in a post-colonial setting and provides empirical evidence as to why some of the methods conceptualised in Europe will not work in Africa. The result is a thorough appraisal of the current threats, challenges and opportunities facing the discipline on the continent." (Publisher description)
more
"This book probes the vitality, potentiality and ability of new communication and technological changes to drive online-based civil action across Africa. In a continent booming with mobile innovation and a plethora of social networking sites, the Internet is considered a powerful platform used by pr
...
o-democracy activists to negotiate and sometimes push for reform-based political and social changes in Africa. The book discusses and theorizes digital activism within social and geo-political realms, analysing cases such as the #FeesMustFall and #BringBackOurGirls campaigns in South Africa and Nigeria respectively to question the extent to which they have changed the dynamics of digital activism in sub-Saharan Africa. Comparative case study reflections in eight African countries identify and critique digital concepts questioning what impact they have had on the civil society. Cases also explore the African LGBT community as a social movement while discussing opportunities and challenges faced by online activists fighting for LGBT equality. Finally, gender-based activists using digital tools to gain attention and facilitate social changes are also appraised." (Publisher description)
more
"On the one hand, there is the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe (VMCZ), a self-regulatory structure favoured by the privately owned media players. On the other hand, there is the Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) formed under statutory law and whose structure is still not adequate to resolve cases
...
brought before it. VMCZ and ZMC are contesting for legitimacy and in various ways they present dialectical positions on the debate on self-regulation. One media house, Alpha Media Holdings, has formed its own Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) system that uses the ombudsman. This article uses press reports and interviews of key people in the media and the ADRs in order to ascertain the effectiveness and problems of the evolving processes, making comparisons with the United Kingdom and South African scenarios where similar debates on Press Councils are topical, especially after the publication of the report on the Leveson Enquiry." (Abstract)
more
"Unlike most nations in southern Africa, Zimbabwe has not seen the expansion in community radio stations that has been characteristic of the region from the 1990s. A number of community radio initiatives (CRIs) were formed after the 2001 Zimbabwean Broadcasting Services Act (BSA), but no licences we
...
re ever issued in any broadcasting sector. This article argues that CRIs reflected the wider political crises of the years since 2000. Even after the Global Political Agreement of 15 September 2008, no community radio station has been licensed. Taking two case studies of such initiatives – Community Radio Harare and Radio Dialogue of Bulawayo – the article investigates how they have survived the Zimbabwean political crisis. It examines the way they lobbied for the right to broadcast and how they produced and distributed programming, and utilized so-called 'roadshows' in an environment where alternative radio stations are viewed with suspicion by ZANU PF." (Abstract)
more