Togo 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 Togo Chapter (PDF): 2012 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2006/7 | 2006/7 (français)
MSI Togo-2012 Introduction
Overall Country Score: 1.60
The panel shed new light on the difficulties, and also the progress, of the Togolese press, whose legitimate ambition is to participate, in its own way, in the effort of national development and the strengthening of democracy. Indeed, despite the existence of pioneering legal texts, the Togolese press remains hindered by its initial failings during the early 1990s: extreme politicization of the media, poor information collection and processing practices, amateurism and dubious business practices in media management, and lack of state aid.
Nevertheless, positive signs are emerging, such as efforts to professionalize certain media (written as well as broadcast), the gradual awakening of the state media, and the appearance of journalism and communication schools.
Development of young democracies cannot be achieved without a free, independent, responsible, and well-managed press. If in the 1990s the liberalization of the press was, among other things, granted under popular pressure, the government would be well advised today to put the Togolese press on the track toward professionalization in appropriate ways, such as substantial increases in state aid to the media, rebates on the cost of materials and electronic equipment, grants for journalism schools, and facilitation of an organizational structure of the advertising industry.
While there is certainly impetus for the growth of the Togolese media, 2012 saw an almost across-the-board regression in each objective, save for its supporting institutions, which the panel rated as having experienced modest improvement. For all the positive signs that can be discerned, it must be said that the overarching trend was negative, with the Togolese media requiring much work to begin the long road to sustainability.
