About the MSI
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IREX designed the MSI to measure the strength and viability of any country's media sector. The MSI considers all the factors that contribute to a media system—the quality of journalism, effectiveness of management, the legal environment supporting freedom of the press, and more—to arrive at scores on a scale ranging between 0 and 4. These scores represent the strength of the media sector components and can be analyzed over time to chart progress (or regression) within a country. Additionally, countries or regions may be compared to one another. IREX currently conducts the MSI in 80 countries, and began studying Africa in 2006.
MSI Overview [8] | Africa [9] | Asia [10] | Europe & Eurasia [11] | Middle East & North Africa [12]
MSI Methodology [13]
Download Complete Burkina Faso Chapter (PDF): 2012 [14] | 2010 [15] | 2009 [16] | 2008 [17] | 2006/7 [18] | 2006/7 (français) [19]
MSI Burkina Faso - 2012 Introduction
Overall Country Score: 2.23
In February 2011, riots broke out in all regions of Burkina Faso after the murder of a young student, Justin Zongo, who was tortured to death while in police custody in Koudougou, a city located 100 kilometers west of the capital.
A mutiny within the military grew out of the riots that shook all units, including the presidential guard. On the social front, protests by trade unions and civil-society organizations against the high cost of living grew alongside the political upheaval. The crisis led to a change of government that promised to stem the social unrest and led to the acceleration of political reform proposals by a council created hastily by the authorities.
The council failed to return a finding on the fundamental question that Burkinabès want answered: Will the constitutional clock be reset in order to let President Blaise Compaoré run again at the end of his term in 2015? The hesitation and the silence Compaoré maintains on this question make for an uncertain political climate during the last three years of the current presidential term.
The sociopolitical crisis described above undeniably affected the media, although the crisis also stimulated a spate of great productivity.
Legal reforms for the media also picked up steam in 2011 and 2012, and the MSI panelists hope 2013 will bring continued progress. Specifically, their sights are set on the revision of the News Code of December 30, 1993, which news professionals and human-rights activists have criticized heavily. A new bill in the works, set to reach the National Assembly sometime in 2013, includes a press law, a law on the radio and television industries, and a law on advertising. The proposed reforms still need some revisions, media professionals acknowledge, but if they are improved and adopted, the MSI panelists believe the bill will significantly advance the media in Burkina Faso.