One of those flurries of work travel (Estonia, Qatar) on top of recent trips to Africa, has convinced me of a need that we at Shakeup would be keen to supply. Can anyone think of way to publicise it … and possibly to fund it from aid money or development grants so that it could be a free service to publishers?
Working on newspapers in developing countries is inspiring because they are generally delivering a demonstrable benefit to society: spreading information and exposing corruption in places where there’s a massive need and where there are no alternative independent mass communications (broadband, patchy; TV, a government mouthpiece; radio, light entertainment).
Often these papers are founded by courageous individuals (such as Hans Luik in Estonia or Charles ‘Mase’ Onyango-Obbo in Uganda) who subsequently become powers in the land but are not (and never especially wanted to be) expert newspaper publishers. Hostile governments and nervous advertisers add to their financial pressures. Insecurity makes it difficult to retain skills and develop staff. The newspaper suffers. The public are let down.
Like doctors visiting field hospitals where bad practices are needlessly putting patients’ lives at risk, we visit newspapers where rivers of scarce cash are wasted on needless faffing around and where there is next to no idea about how to organise a newsroom, commission, edit and design a good newspaper or market a title to its natural readership.
This hurts. It hurts because newspapers always matter and they matter especially in developing countries. And it would be relatively easy (or at least not impossible) to double some of these papers’ efficiency and double their quality at the same time, creating a better media and a secure independent sector.
So here’s the idea: a publisher’s toolkit, like an IKEA house, with everything you need in one box to run a clever, modern, successful newspaper. We’d give them basic, good design; decent fonts; work-flow management systems; the latest indesign software; newsroom layouts; production plans; marketing rules and a daily editorial schedule. One from a pool of senior editors and publishers would be on hand to help install the toolkit — which could be a complete or partial replacement of an existing operation. And once installed, it would be adapted and individualised of course to fit the special requirements of the title in question.
In my conception, this would be a free service for anyone in a developing country who was running an independent newspaper that was doing its best to tell the truth.
Entry Filed under: Media, Newspapers
2 Comments Add your own
1. Tonu | February 25th, 2009 at 2:41 am
thanks
estonia is not uganda, i think
-never been in uganda, but estonia is independent european country
we need consultations and ideas
but we can work
i know my colleagues and students
and we can to do something
thought we have this “textbook” some years
how to solve problems
2. Nigel Gourlay | February 26th, 2009 at 6:53 am
Many countries don’t have an independent media. Certainly, your example of Qatar is a bad one. The press laws mean that papers are owned by the leaders of the country. Here’s what the Doha Centre for Media Freedom had to say about their hosts a couple of weeks ago:
In 1996, Qatar launched the first Arabic-language
rolling-news satellite TV station, Al Jazeera, which
has revolutionised the regional media scene and stirred up
controversy, though it has not really changed the media
freedom situation in Qatar itself.
The national press, comprising seven Arabic and English language dailies, is still greatly affected by self-censorship, as in other Gulf states. This is complicated by the fact that most Qatari newspaper staff are foreigners whose residence permits very much depend on whether they obey the taboos imposed by the authorities.
Yet the same authorities defend the outspokenness of Al Jazeera, sometimes to the detriment of its diplomatic relations with other Arab countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Tunisia. This contradiction is seen most clearly in the boldness of Al Jazeera’s journalists concerning international affairs and the cautiousness they and journalists in other Qatari media outlets display when it comes to internal Qatari matters.
As the celebration in Doha of World Press Freedom Day on 3 May 2009 approaches, Qatari journalists are greatly hoping for legal reforms. It is also very important that Qatar, a current member of the United Nations Human Rights
Council, signs and ratifies the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights, which is a key commitment to
human rights.
Risky profession
Journalism in this situation is like walking a tightrope, which encourages self-censorship and makes it dangerous to criticise the government. Reporting on living conditions or dismissal of foreign workers is also a problem. Written press journalists must tread carefully to avoid being sacked or even deported. They are beholden to their employer, who keeps their passport while they are in Qatar. Journalists are also vulnerable because Qatar has no association that can defend them before their employers or the authorities, since trade unions are strictly forbidden.
Economic journalists often face insurmountable reporting
obstacles. For example, it is usually impossible to check figures put out by local firms. “These journalists tend to protect themselves so they aren’t accused of harming
Qatar’s image as an attractive place for foreign investment,” said one, “so they just cut-and-paste material from government statements.”
Qatari legislation does not encourage a free media either.
The 1979 press and publications law has never been amended
despite the revolution in the local media scene, which
now includes a satellite TV station and Internet news sites.
Prohibitions in it are open to broad interpretation and the law gives substantial power to the authorities. The prime minister’s office can add to the list of prohibitions at any time by simply informing the media. Failure to obey these rules can get a media outlet shut down without any right of legal appeal.
The absence of a special court to handle media offences and staffed by judges familiar with how the media works also undermines journalists, who can be imprisoned for infractions that are often badly defined. Lack of media trade unions or associations makes it hard to know exactly how many journalists have been prosecuted.
Source: http://www.dohacentre.org/upload/rapport/report2009_en.zip
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