Madagascar 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.
MSI Overview | Africa | Asia | Europe & Eurasia | Middle East & North Africa
Download Complete Madagascar Chapter (PDF): 2012 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2006/7 | 2006/7 (français)
MSI Madagascar-2012 Introduction
Overall Country Score: 1.71
After three consecutive years of political crisis, Madagascar continues to languish in a precarious socioeconomic situation. The majority of its population is deeply impoverished and the country is feeling widespread insecurity over physical safety and the availability of food.
The signing of the so-called “political road map” in September 2011 brought glimmers of hope, as did the establishment of a new government in November 2011 and a new parliament in December 2011. But the transitional regime is not yet fully recognized by the international community. The parliamentary system has seen some noteworthy progress in certain aspects, such as the setting up of the Independent National Election Commission and the acceptance of an electoral calendar, but some resolutions have not been implemented, and the crisis is by no means over.
On the economic front, although the 5.6 percent rate of inflation for the first half of 2012 appears to be down relative to the previous two years, the uncertainty is pushing more and more households into poverty. Fuel costs—and in turn, the prices of staple foods such as rice, oil, and sugar—continue to rise. Investments, and consequently employment, are not yet experiencing recovery, and only the tourism sector of the economy is stable. According to a report by the World Bank, the percentage of the population living below the poverty line increased by 10 points from 2009 to 2012, and is now at 53.4 percent.
Amid the ongoing tensions between Madagascar’s myriad political factions, media attention was monopolized in 2012 by three topics: 1) Free FM radio’s demonstrations, its closing, and the criminal convictions of two of its journalists; 2) The exploitation of Madagascar’s various resources, including trafficking in rosewood and gold, large-scale mining and oil extraction, and the grabbing up of vast tracts of agricultural land; and 3) The growing insecurity in southern Madagascar due to banditry and the military’s attempts to stop it.
The MSI survey was conducted in this context. The overall score confirms the precarious situation of the media sector in Madagascar and reflects the difficulties that journalists face in fulfilling their mission to transparently provide reliable and diversified information to the public. Only objectives 3 and 5 received scores greater than 2.00; the other three received scores that placed them in the “unsustainable, mixed system” category.
