Region
Africa
The new disinformation and propaganda laboratory
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Disinformation keeps on spreading in sub-Saharan Africa. In countries plagued by conflicts and security threats, governments treat the media as propaganda tools. The military governments of Mali (113th) and Burkina Faso (58th), who aren’t shy about displaying their association with the mercenaries of the privately owned Russian military company Wagner Group, have indefinitely suspended the local branches of two international media outlets and have expelled several foreign journalists. In the Central African Republic (98th), the content of the Russian propaganda media outlets RT and Sputnik is widely disseminated. The defence and promotion of the pro-Russian narrative has contributed to an explosion of  disinformation and the development of a propaganda ecosystem across the continent. Fake media networks now even help to denigrate and discredit journalists who do not comply with patriotic injunctions imposed by the new military juntas in power.

 

A similar phenomenon is noticeable in Ethiopia (130th). The Tigray War has led to a wave of arrests of journalists and encouraged intense propaganda by federal authorities, such as the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). In the Democratic Republic of Congo (124th), in the North Kivu region, journalists are caught between the injunctions of the M23 rebels and those of the loyalist forces.

 

Still a high-risk continent for journalists

 

Propaganda and disinformation thrive in what is still one of the most dangerous terrains for journalists. While French reporter Olivier Dubois was finally released after 711 days as a hostage in Mali, a total of five journalists were killed in connection with their work from September 2022 to January 2023 in Cameroon (138th), Kenya (116th), Somalia (141st) and Rwanda (131st). Even if investigations are opened, they do not always lead to identification of the instigators, as seen in the cases of Cameroonian journalist Martinez Zogo and Rwandan journalist John Williams Ntwali.

 

In this environment where impunity reigns, arbitrary arrests on spurious grounds are on the rise, targeting investigative reporters in particular. Once a regional model, Senegal (104th) has fallen 31 places in the index, above all because of the judicial proceedings against two journalists, Pape Alé Niang and Pape Ndiaye, and a sharp deterioration in security conditions for reporters. In Burundi (114th), radio journalist Floriane Irangabiye’s extremely harsh 10-year prison sentence helped to keep this country towards the bottom of the index.

 

Although the situation is now classified as “difficult” in nearly 40% of countries (versus 33% in 2022), some improvements were seen in countries such as Niger (61st), where a cybercrime law used to imprison journalists was amended in June 2022, and in Uganda (133rd), where the Constitutional Court struck down a provision of the Computer Misuse Act that criminalised the publication of “fake news”.

 

The countries

Name Index Global score Diff. score 2022 Diff. position 2022
South Africa
25
78.6
3
-10
Angola
125
48.3
-9
26
Benin
112
52.44
4
-9
Botswana
65
64.61
6
-30
Burkina Faso
58
67.64
-6
17
Burundi
114
52.14
-3
7
Cameroon
138
45.58
-4
20
Cabo Verde
33
75.72
0
-3
Comoros
75
62.25
2
-8
Congo-Brazzaville
81
60.42
2
-12
Ivory Coast
54
68.83
-6
17
Djibouti
162
35.87
0
-2
Eritrea
174
27.86
8
-5
Eswatini
111
52.66
6
-20
Ethiopia
130
47.7
-3
16
Gabon
94
58.12
2
-11
Gambia
46
71.06
2
-4
Ghana
62
65.93
-2
2
Guinea
85
59.51
0
1
Equatorial Guinea
120
50.35
7
-21
Guinea Bissau
78
61.57
3
-14
Kenya
116
51.15
-13
47
Lesotho
67
64.29
5
-21
Liberia
66
64.34
2
-9
Madagascar
101
56.66
-2
3
Malawi
82
60.34
-1
2
Mali
113
52.29
-2
2
Mauritius
63
65.56
-1
-1
Mauritania
86
59.45
1
-11
Mozambique
102
56.13
7
-14
Namibia
22
80.91
-1
4
Niger
61
66.84
-1
2
Nigeria
123
49.56
3
-6
Uganda
133
46.08
0
1
Central African Republic
98
57.56
1
-3
Democratic Republic of Congo
124
48.55
1
-1
Rwanda
131
46.58
1
-5
Senegal
104
55.82
-8
31
Seychelles
34
75.71
-8
21
Sierra Leone
74
62.55
-9
28
Somalia
141
44.24
0
1
Sudan
148
40.83
0
-3
South Sudan
118
50.62
3
-10
Tanzania
143
44.02
-4
20
Chad
109
53.73
-3
5
Togo
70
63.06
6
-30
Zambia
87
59.41
4
-22
Zimbabwe
126
48.17
4
-11