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New Information and Communication Technologies and Professionals in the Media
Coulibaly, Abdou Latif
Coulibaly, Abdou Latif
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latcoeng.pdf
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"Overseen by respected professionals with broad experience, this press came to supplement the official media national radio and television, the daily government newspaper, Le Soleil, and Agence de Presse sénégalaise (APS). This new press appeared between 1987 and 1993 and represented a benchmark in Francophone Africa, providing a sharp contrast with the many publications in Africa during this period, which exhibited poor quality of writing and a lack of professionalism. The struggle for greater freedom of the press which certain totalitarian regimes were forced to grant as a result of social and political protest movements was accompanied by the publication of newspapers that conveyed the views of political parties or advocated social positions on behalf of trade unions. In places where governments controlled the print and audiovisual media, their opponents expressed themselves through newspapers that they, themselves, created. This proliferation of newspapers, however, did nothing to ensure professionalism in the press. Senegal s press served as a model for Africa, particularly in the French-speaking regions of the continent. The Senegalese press is not directly controlled by any political entity or labor union, and nearly all of the major newspapers were established on the basis of private investments from persons with no known political affiliation This professionalization of journalism led to significant changes in Senegal, where, for more that 30 years (from 1960 to 1992), there had been only one daily newspaper. The establishment of a privately-controlled press was gradual. It began with the appearance of some ten weekly newspapers, most notably Sud Hebdo, Wal Fadjri/L Aurore, Le Témoin and Le Cafard libéré. Between 1992 and 1998, four daily newspapers appeared, all with national circulation. The State-run press, which lost readers to these other newspapers, thus lost its absolute monopoly, which had acted as a major constraint on the development of a democratic society. This new competitive environment compelled the State to grant a degree of freedom to journalists employed by its own daily, while the political change at the top levels of the executive branch, which occurred in March 2000, accelerated the liberalization process."(pg 5)
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2002-05
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With permission of the license/copyright holder