Central African Republic Media Sustainability Index (MSI)
March 12, 2012
About the MSI
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 | Africa | Asia | Europe & Eurasia | Middle East & North Africa
Download Complete Central African Republic Chapter (PDF): 2010 |2009 | 2008 | 2006/7| 2006/7 (français)
MSI Central African Republic-2010 Introduction
Overall Country Score: 1.64
Independent observers of the media landscape in the Central African Republic (CAR) agree: while not perfect, the media environment and the freedom of the press are far from alarming. Much has changed since the days when former president David Dacko (1960-1966) and Emporer Jean Bedel Bokass (1966-1979) kept tight control of the press and systematically repressed any "subversive text." Under Bokass'a regime, for example, criticzing the government or simply publishing a cartoon was unimaginable and the press was limited to photographs that largely sang the government's praises.
With the advent of a multiparty system in 1992, the population was free once again to speak out. Small opposition newspapers, with circulations in the thousands of copies, boomed, and political cartoons were excellent. When the tenure of President François Bozize began in 2003 and press offenses were decriminalized in 2005, the media environment improved further, despite a few but consistent attacks and threats against the media and journalists.
Improvements notwithstanding, the MSI panelists reported that the state of the media still reflects a country marked by repeated conflict and severe economic hardship. The media landscape that experienced significant growth in the 1990s is now limited to a handful of media, most clustered in the capital, Bangui. The government does not have an official press outlet, other than the state-run news agency. Most newspapers, often linked to political trends in the country, favor the opposition but maintain "gracious neutrality" toward the government, one MSI panelist said.
To weather the tough economic environemnt and meet extremely high production costs, newspaper managers are forced often to resort to governmental assistance. Publications from the capital do not reach the provinces, sales are low, and they have almost no impact on the population outside of the cities. According to Albert Mbaya, chair of the Groupement des Editeurs de la Presse Privée Indépendante de Centrafrique (GEPPIC), "French is the language of the written press despite a majority of people who cannot read the language, not to mention that buying newspapers in such a poor country is definitely not a priority for most households."
On the new media front, CAR remains a country where many journalists still do not have an e-mail address, and many citizens do not yet know how to use the Internet.
The Central African Republic study was coordinated by, and conducted in partnership with, Journaliste en Danger, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.
