Strict laws slow down media investment in East Africa

EAC Secretary General Dr.Richard Sezibera

By AGENCIES

RESTRICTIVE rules for licensing media houses and registering journalists have slowed down cross-border investment and limited the industry’s participation in the regional integration.

Industry players said regulatory barriers including strict terms for obtaining work permits have discouraged media houses from extending their operations to the five East African countries, limiting its vanguard role in policing the ongoing integration.

“The environment must be reformed to encourage and allow free movement of EAC journalists and media practitioners,” Alphonsine Niyigena, the vice chairperson of East African Business Council, told 5th EAC Summit in Kigali Thursday.

The annual event, which brings together journalists, media owners and regulators, heard that media houses which have gone regional are not able to interact fully with the bloc’s 136-million people two years after the launch of the common market protocol.

Under the protocol, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi committed to open up their media industry by 2010 but national regulators continue to restrict industry practitioners.

Tanzania, however, asked for a longer time frame of up to December 2015 to fully open its media market for journalists and investors from member states.

Due to these restrictions, industry investment has fallen far below potential and the media has been left playing catch up in its oversight role over regional integration, players said.

In Tanzania, for instance, the best selling paper has a daily circulation of just 40,000 copies with total print penetration reaching just 10 per cent of 46-million-people market, EAC Secretary-General Richard Sezibera said.

“Media has a critical role to play in whipping up popular involvement and participation of citizens in the envisaged economic and political transformation of East Africa,” Dr Sezibera said. He added that more players were necessary as governments in the region shift editorial control to private hands.

While opening the two-day summit, Rwanda President Paul Kagame said homegrown media was better placed to tell the East Africa’s story but regulation was necessary to protect the rights of others.

“EAC is still dominated by foreign media which are misrepresenting our priorities and distorting our agenda,” President Kagame said.

But as information technology continues to break barriers, players said virtual rather than physical establishment could help the industry sidestep regulatory controls.

Said Andrew Mwenda, founder and managing director of Uganda’s The Observer newspaper, said industry investors were increasingly creating sections on their websites targeting markets in member states.

Analysts, however, said suspicion of investors from other member states had also contributed to slow cross-border licensing of media houses.

“As we continue to restrict entry of our neighbours, more foreign media are getting licences to promote their own agenda within EAC borders,” said Jenerali Ulimwengu, a Tanzanian media commentator.