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                  MEDIA-BENIN: Tiny West African Nation Throws its
                  Airwaves Open




By Gisele Glele
COTONOU, Dec 12 (IPS) - Come next year, 19 new radio and TV stations
will be able to operate in Benin, following a decision to that effect
by the West African state's media licencing and regulatory body.

The Higher Audiovisual and Communication Authority (HAAC) last month
authorised eight commercial radio stations and seven non- commercial
ones along with one TV station and three satellite-TV channels.

They still have to wait, though, for a final green light, this time
from an ad hoc committee set up by the Ministry of Culture and
Communication. Among other things, that committee has to ensure that
the frequencies awarded by the HAAC are in line with international
accords and do not interfere with the frequencies of state services.

The HAAC's move marked the implementation of a decision to de-
monopolise the airwaves, taken in 1990 by the National Conference that
placed Benin on the road to multi-party democracy. It was welcomed by
many Beninois, who had awaited it with impatience.

''The freeing up of the audiovisual sector has come late in Benin,''
says Fernando H., a teacher here. ''They took too long to draw up the
legal provisions.'' Still, he is happy that Beninois can now benefit
from a broader range of news. ''I'm not satisfied by national
television,'' he says. ''There are many things that are hidden from
us.''

Economist Abdoulaye C. feels much the same way. ''The political
debates on national television are not satisfactory,'' he says.
''Economic debates do not even exist. Our television does not educate
people and it does not have current films.''

National television exists only for the state, adds Abdoulaye, who
explains that many Beninois have been turning to foreign channels
because they have been disappointed by national television.

But not everyone throughout Benin is likely to see or hear the new
stations. While he welcomes the fact that there will now be more
sources of information, Abel Gbetohenomo, a journalist with a private
periodical, notes that ''some regions are more favoured than others
with regard to the private audio-visual media'' since about a third of
the new radio stations and all four TV channels will be set up in
Cotonou,

Gbetohenomo also wonders how well the new media will work.

''We know what the start of the private print media was like,'' he
says. ''And when you know that the radio is the medium most widely
listened to, it would be a good thing to introduce some safeguards,
with regard to both the quality of the programmes and the presentation
of the information.''

The safeguards include paying staff well, he suggests.

Under the terms of their licences, the new commercial radio and TV
stations are required to employ qualified journalists and
communicators, and some have already started preparing for this. The
Africa Obata Centre, which is setting up a community radio, has sent
its announcers for a crash course at the Ouagadougou International
Centre for Studes in Rural Radio (CIERRO) in Burkina Faso.

However, some of the media houses are dissatisfied by the way
frequencies were allocated. ''It's bad to say there are not many
frequencies while, at the same time, two frequencies are granted to
the same person,'' says Thomas M. of the Africa Obata Centre.

''People said the de-monopolisation would be something for the rich
and that is what we are seeing,'' he adds in a reference to an
extremely wealthy businessman who received two frequencies.

Others radio owners, including the founder of Aheme F.M., another
community radio, are unhappy that they have been required to take out
subscriptions to the state-owned Benin News Agency (ABP), which
distributes national and international news in the West African
nation.

''The amount set by the agency is exhorbitant and, moreover, a radio
like ours does not necessarily need international news,'' he says.

Some consumers support the concerns of the new broadcasters, arguing
that the profitability of their operations might be impaired. ''Since
Beninois are not accustomed to paying to follow programmes, I am
afraid that the law authorises the creation of the media, on one hand,
but on the other it creates material and financial difficulties for
these media,'' says businesswoman Martine H.

Some of the stations had done test runs on Benin's National Day,
August 1, and this had aroused much enthusiasm here.

Some people had vowed to march on the HAAC if the stations were not
authorised. Other commented that even if the private media were to
disappear one day, the mere fact that they had existed or that it had
been announced that they would start operating would have served to
improve the public media. (fin/ips/gg/nrn/97)
___________________________________________________
Bruce Girard             Agencia Informativa Pulsar
Email: bgirard@pulsar.org.ec
http://www.comunica.org/pulsar
Fono/Fax: +593-2-501 180 o 551 674
Fax en Montreal, Canada: +1-514-221-2009
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