Media coverage of Africa

Media coverage of Africa is biased and weighted heavily with negative undertones. At the recent African Presidential Roundtable 2005 held in Johannesburg, 11 former African heads of state taking part expressed this concern:

'We mustn't condone bad reporting in America which brings the bad image (on Africa). Please report correctly,' he asked journalists.

Kenneth Kaunda, the former Zambian president, laid the blame for Zimbabwe's current problems, especially those relating to land, at Britain's doorstep. 'Mugabe gave them (Britain) 10 years to put things right. They didn't. It is the British government which must be blamed, especially the present one,' he said.

I have followed western (UK, US) media's coverage of Africa for a while now. This biased approach has always been apparent to me. It's all you can expect from people who have nothing much to report on. On one hand Africans should be more responsible in deliverying well sourced information that provide a true picture of what's going on in Africa.

The lack of information flow produces a vacuum that is so easily exploited by people with vested interest in Africa.