Chad Media Sustainability Index (MSI)
April 24, 2013
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.
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Download Complete Chad Chapter (PDF): 2012 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2006/7 | 2006/7 (français)
MSI Chad - 2012 Introduction
Overall Country Score: 1.88
Chad recently held three successive elections: presidential, legislative, and local. In the introduction to the meeting of panelists who convened in N’Djamena to measure the sustainability of Chadian media, the moderator explained that the elections are a powerful barometer to scrutinize both the behavior of political leaders against the media and to gauge the media’s professionalism.
The panelists noted that one month after the elections, the prime minister and the minister of information and communication issued press releases that seemed “to revert freedom of expression back a decade” by announcing a review of the laws related to the decriminalization of press offenses. This was seen as a thinly veiled desire to abolish the law that put an end to prison terms for journalists accused of defamation or offending authorities. For some observers, the minister’s accusations against the media have a specious nature, especially since the minister of information and communication is the actual “editor-in-chief” of the public radio and television networks.
If the panelists denounced the predatory behavior of those in power, they did not fail to notice the flaws identified within the journalistic profession. “It must be said that, at times, Chadian journalists confuse journalism and activism,” argued some participants.
It is in this context of “neither war nor peace” that the National Independent Electoral Commission (commonly known by its French acronym, CENI) and the High Media Council (commonly known by its French acronym, HEC) organized training sessions “to bring journalists up to standard.” These training sessions have been initiated by both NGO partners and the HEC.
Hence, during the development of the whole process, the Chadian press effectively played its role in informing and educating the public about the electoral process. This, noted the panelists (comprised mostly of journalists), earned the press full points from CENI and HEC.
To conclude, the panelists proclaimed: “In short, unlike previous years, we must recognize that freedom of expression in Chad has become more and more a reality. It is now up to the journalists themselves to play the game so that this achievement is no longer snatched away from them. It does not necessarily mean that this is total freedom. It is relative.”
The Chad study was coordinated by, and conducted in partnership with, Journaliste en Danger, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.
