Media, Elections and Political Violence in Eastern Africa: Towards a Comparative Framework Nicole Stremlau
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University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Departmental Papers (ASC) Annenberg School for Communication 10-2009 Media, Elections and Political Violence in Eastern Africa: Towards a Comparative Framework Nicole Stremlau Monroe Price University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers Part of the Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, and the Social Influence and Political Communication Commons Recommended Citation Stremlau, N., & Price, M. (2009). Media, Elections and Political Violence in Eastern Africa: Towards a Comparative Framework. Retrieved from https://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/723 Published by: The rP ogramme in Comparative Media Law and Policy, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford Center for Global Communication Studies, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania Stanhope Centre for Communications Policy Research, London This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/723 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Media, Elections and Political Violence in Eastern Africa: Towards a Comparative Framework Disciplines Communication | Critical and Cultural Studies | Social and Behavioral Sciences | Social Influence and Political Communication Comments Published by: The rP ogramme in Comparative Media Law and Policy, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford Center for Global Communication Studies, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania Stanhope Centre for Communications Policy Research, London This report is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/723 Media, Elections and Political Violence. in Eastern Africa: Towards a Comparative Framework 1 Nicole Stremlau and Monroe E. Price An Annenberg-Oxford Occasional Paper in Communications Policy Research 2 Published by: The Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford Center for Global Communication Studies, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania Stanhope Centre for Communications Policy Research, London October 2009 Acknowledgements: We are grateful for the support of the Africa Conflict Prevention Pool Fund of the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The authors would like to thank Libby Morgan, Charlotte Cross and Ylva Rodny-Gumede for their work on this report and the associated workshop. About the authors: Nicole Stremlau is Coordinator and Research Fellow of the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy at the Centre of Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford. Monroe E. Price is Director of the Center for Global Communication Studies, Annenberg School, University of Pennsylvania. Cover photo by Nicole Stremlau Contents executive summary .................................................................................................................................4 part 1: exploring the issue .......................................................................................................................5 Post-Election Violence in Context .......................................................................................................... 5 Towards a Structure of Analysis ............................................................................................................. 8 Session 1: Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 11 Session 2: Case Study Experiences from the Region .............................................................................. 13 Session 4: Political Dimensions of Media and Electoral Systems ........................................................... 18 3 Session 5: How do Particular Media Practices Contribute to Tensions or Promote Peaceful Resolutions to Electoral Disputes? ............................................................................................................................ 20 Session 6: Media Regulation: Hate Speech, Violent Conflict, and the Regulation of Communication in War and Post-War Situations ................................................................................................................. 22 Session 7: Upcoming Elections ............................................................................................................... 24 part 3: conclusions and recommendations ..............................................................................................26 Analytic Framework ............................................................................................................................... 26 Conclusions and Recommendations for Media Policy in the Post-Election Period ................................ 29 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................. 31 part 4: appendix and bibliography ...........................................................................................................32 Appendix A: Eastern African Cases ......................................................................................................... 32 Appendix B: List of Workshop Participants ............................................................................................ 37 Appendix C: Reference List ..................................................................................................................... 39 Appendix D: Selected Bibliography ........................................................................................................ 41 For more information, please visit the PCMLP website (http://pcmlp.socleg.ox.ac.uk) or contact Nicole Stremlau at [email protected]. executive summary The problem of post-election violence seems to be ever-more present as complexities of nation-building and democratic development arise. This report deals with some relevant questions. It is based on the outcome of discussions at a December 2008 workshop organized in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia by the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy at the University of Oxford, the Center for Global Communications Studies at the Annenberg School, University of Pennsylvania and the Stanhope Centre for Communications Policy Research.1 Our objective was to examine the role of the media in the aftermath of competitive elections. The workshop provided the opportunity to explore the election experiences of Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, 4 Somaliland, Tanzania and Sudan in a comparative framework. The focus was on understanding why election violence occurred after some elections, what the role of the media was in either exacerbating or resolving disputes, and what this suggests about the broader political project and the state of the media in the countries under examination. This report is only an introduction to the subject. Additional structured research will be important in furthering our understanding of these important issues, but we hope that this provides a starting point from which to launch deeper studies. As a way of furthering research in this area, this report suggests three ways of analyzing the role of the media can play in post-election violence: 1) as an amplifier, facilitating and accelerating the spread of messages that both encourage violence or appeal for peaceful resolutions; 2) as a mirror, offering either an accurate or somewhat distorted reflection of the state and nation-building process; and 3) as an enabler, contributing to the process of nation-building. We conclude by offering media policy recommendations. 1 The workshop, held in Addis Ababa on December 15 and 16, 2008, was sponsored by the Africa Conflict Prevention Pool Fund and British Embassy in Addis Ababa. Violence is a process, not an event. Violent acts part 1: exploring the issue may be spontaneous, but they are more often the product of a longer sequence of historical decisions and political actions.2 Post-election violence has become an increasingly observable phenomenon. The existence and Among the many factors that can affect the destructive force of post-election violence incidence of violence, the role of the media is surely challenges political transitions, aspects of nation- one of them. Many accounts of election-related building, and notions of democratization itself. disputes in East Africa and elsewhere express a Post-election violence has a global footprint and concern about the role of media. Although it is not a global impact, and as such, it is necessary to usually the defining factor in determining whether develop an understanding of how and when such violence will or will not occur, the role of the media violence occurs (or can be prevented) in a variety of is a significant aspect of the overall context. circumstances. 5 Violence can be associated with all three or just The subject is a massive one. Our task here is to one of the election phases: the pre-election phase, begin the inquiry by focusing on a workshop held the day/s of the election, or the immediate post- in Ethiopia in December 2008. The workshop was election period. Typically, violence is clustered organized to explore issues associated with the around the pre- and post-election period; voting media and post-election violence in East Africa, day generally—but not always—appears to proceed though the lessons learned can be applied to peacefully. It is the campaigning period and