Business Times Africa Magazine 2017 /vol 9/ No2 BT2Edition2017_web | Page 66

AFRICA
Why the role of the media
is so important to free and
fair elections in Africa
By George Ogola
T
he news media is usually one
of first casualties of bungled or
contested elections. From the
recent US elections, the UK’s Brexit
vote to Zambia’s controversial 2016
presidential elections, the main-
stream news media bore the brunt of
much of the criticism that followed.
In Africa, biased media coverage,
most often in favour of incumbent
presidents, is one of the reasons vot-
ers have little faith in the legitimacy of
election outcomes.
In South Africa for example, the
public broadcaster routinely comes
under intense criticism at election
time for being a propaganda outlet
for the ruling African National Con-
gress.
Kenya’s state broadcaster has often
shed its public mandate to become
the governing party’s mouthpiece
during general elections. In countries
such as Uganda, Tanzania, Zimba-
bwe, Malawi, Swaziland and Zambia
public broadcasters openly canvas
for incumbent governments during
elections.
Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga briefing
the media in 2008 after post-election turmoil
Media as independent arbiter
Over the last few years, the nature
of political campaigns in Africa has
changed significantly. Politicians
and political parties are now actively
shaping their public profiles. They are
engaging powerful PR agencies and
even starting their own media organ-
isations to market themselves.
In Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta’s gov-
erning Jubilee Party has engaged the
services of British PR firm BTP Advi-
sors, as well as the data mining com-
64 Business Times Africa | 2017
pany Cambridge Analytica (CA).
CA played a key role in Donald
Trump’s win in the US presidential
elections, and in the UK’s Brexit vote
through aggressive data driven cam-
paigning.
This changing political landscape
has complicated the media’s role in
the coverage of elections. But there’s
still an expectation that the main-
stream news media should play the
role of impartial arbiter.
They are expected to provide an
open platform for broader public
deliberation particularly at election
time.
It’s this expectation that informs
criticism when the media fails to ful-
fil this important mandate. Indeed,
while digital technologies such as
social media have now been widely
adopted in Africa, millions remain