🚀 go-pugleaf

From the IFEX "COMMUNIQUE" # 7-4        27 January 1998
 AFRICA: TELECOMMUNICATIONS ACCESS CALLED FREE EXPRESSION ISSUE

Access to telecommunications, be it the telephone or the Internet, is a
freedom of expression issue in Africa, says the Media Institute of Southern
Africa's (MISA) "Network News" (Vol 1, Issue 5 1997.) Richard Carver of
ARTICLE 19 reports that "the speed with which human rights workers and
journalists in Africa have embraced the Internet reflects the weakness of
the state of telecommunications on the continent. Electronic mail is a
highly practical response to few and unreliable telephone lines, but the
Internet is still an elite activity beyond the reach of most Africans."
Carver adds, "South Africans may rank eighteenth in the Internet world, but
half its nationals have still never made a phone call. By and large, the
modems are to be found in Sandton, not Soweto." In a separate article in
"Network News" about the Internet, Michiel Hegener notes that "less than one
percent of the world's Internet traffic currently reaches Africa: the
telephone network hardly exists."

According to Carver, the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe ruled in December 1995 in
favour of a private cellular phone company that wanted to break the hold of
the state-owned Posts and Telecommunications Corporation's (PTC) monopoly.
The judge reportedly ruled that "people should not only be free to express
themselves, but should also have access to the means of expression,
including the telephone." Unfortunately, Carver says that private companies
charge high prices while state-owned companies provide poor service at lower
costs. He opines, "What are needed, clearly, are independent licensing and
regulatory bodies which will develop policy for the telecommunications
sector as a whole."

** ** **

The IFEX Communique is published weekly in English, French and Spanish by
the International Freedom of Expression eXchange (IFEX) Clearing House. The
facility is operated by the Canadian Committee to Protect Journalists (CCPJ)
in partnership with the member organizations of IFEX. Contact the IFEX CH at
489 College St. #403, Toronto, Ontario M6G 1A5 Canada, tel: +1 416 515 9622,
fax: +1 416 515 7869/7879, e-mail: communique@ifex.org. The Communique and
the alerts can be viewed on the IFEX Internet Service at:
http://www.ifex.org.  Communique Editor: Kristina Stockwood. Subscriptions
are available free or through voluntary donation by e-mail and surface mail.
The views expressed in the Communique are the responsibility of the sources
to which they are attributed.

___________________________________________________
Bruce Girard Boa         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
Av. Atahualpa 333, Casilla 17-08-8489, Quito, Ecuador