Niger 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 Niger Chapter (PDF): 2012 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2006/7 | 2006/7 (français)
MSI Niger – 2012 Introduction
Overall Country Score: 2.06
After a brief transition period that began with the military coup of February 2010, Niger returned to a democratic system in 2011 with general elections held at the presidential, legislative, and local levels. The country also adopted a new constitution by popular referendum on November 25, 2010, which restored the semi-presidential system and presidential term limits, the elimination of which in 2009 by then-President Mamadou Tandja had kicked off the crisis.
Like its predecessor, the new Nigerien constitution recognizes and guarantees all civil and political rights, including most economic, social, and cultural rights, and individual and collective freedoms. Its provisions are in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. The new constitution also, for the first time in the history of the country, sanctifies the right to food and drinking water. This is a significant step in a country plagued by increasingly frequent food crises.
In terms of the quality of laws adopted during the transition period, it is no exaggeration to say that the 2010 coup opened up some interesting prospects in terms of freedom of the press in Niger. These arise in particular from provisions of the new constitution and of the new law on press freedom, which establishes the “decriminalization” of offenses committed in the press. In addition, the new president, Issoufou Mahamadou, signed the Declaration of Table Mountain, which commits the head of state to abolish all criminal laws governing defamation or insult.
In the world press-freedom rankings by Reporters Without Borders, Niger saw a huge step forward in 2011, rising from 104th to 29th of 179 countries in the rankings. The quantum leap in terms of respect for freedom of the press must not, however, obscure the still low level of professionalism of Nigerien journalists. Respect for the rules of ethics and professional conduct even took significant steps backward, despite the efforts of the National Communications Observatory (ONC) and the Nigerien Observatory of the Media for Ethics and Professional Conduct (ONIMED). Ethical violations by some journalists, a particularly widespread phenomenon in the print media, give rise to the fear that legal gains may be compromised.
The panel discussion emphasized that professionalism remains a critical issue for the Nigerien media, especially given that the sad state of the media’s economic environment leaves little hope that stronger ethics will take hold. Objective 4 on business management was the lowest rated by the panelists, which implies the link between low professionalism and the media’s financial problems. One important conclusion to be made is that the decent scores received for Objectives 1, 2, and 3—on freedom of expression, diversity of sources, and supporting institutions—do not yet seem to be contributing to the emergence of a top-quality media in Niger.
