United Nations Development Programme Human Development Report Office OCCASIONAL PAPER Background paper for HDR 2002 Poverty Eradication and Democracy in the Developing World TheHUMAN Media, DEVELOPMENT Accountability andREPORT Civic 2002Engagement in Africa Wisdom J. Tettey I. The Changing Global Context Significant changes in the global setting over the course of the last few decades resulted in an increasing prominence for the pursuit of transnational justice and individual accountability. The aftermath of the terrifying attacks on America on September 2002/19 1 HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2002 THE MEDIA, ACCOUNTABILITY, AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT IN AFRICA By Wisdom J. Tettey Faculty of Communication and Culture University of Calgary Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1N4 E-mail:
[email protected] Phone: (403) 220-4847 Fax: (403) 282-6716 Introduction At the beginning of the 1990s, a confluence of internal and external factors produced significant conjunctures in the political landscape of Africa. The most significant result of these developments was a revival of democratic optimism, not only across the African continent but also around the world. One of the areas where the democratic changes have spawned visible changes has been in the media landscape. There has been an unprecedented increase in the number, type and diversity of mass media on the continent.1 The last decade has seen the emergence of various private newspapers and radio stations which offer alternative views on issues, even though some countries, such as Zimbabwe, refuse to ease state control of the electronic media. In Ghana, for example, there has been an increase in private radio and television stations from zero each in 1993 to 13 and two respectively, in 1999.