Comoros
According to the 2020 World Press Freedom Index (WPFI), Comoros, the island country in the Indian Ocean off the eastern coast of Africa, was ranked 75th out of 180 total countries. Compared to its 50th rank back in 2015 and 2016 and its slight improvement in 2017 where it went up to rank 44, the last three years showed drastic negative change. In 2018 Comoros was ranked in 49th place, only to go down to 56 in 2019 and have a drastic fall to 75 in 2020.
The annual press freedom ranking was made and published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), an international non-profit organization intended to safeguard the right to freedom of information. Their main purposes were to allow people access to free information, defend their right to freedom of expression, and assist journalists at risk.
In RSF’s Comoros Report it was mentioned that the 2018 constitutional referendum and President Azali Assoumani’s reelection in March 2019 lead to political tension within the country. This resulted in a lot of freedom violations, including intimidation of journalists, attacks, arrests and censorship.
Another article by RSF wrote that after the reelection, Toufé Maecha, an editor for the Comoros newspaper, was arrested for being “an opposition spy” while two French journalists, Louis Witter and Cyril Castelliti, were arrested and interrogated for a day. Other journalists were directly censored by the security forces, which caused journalists to refuse to cover government activities for two weeks.
The 2001 constitution, which was amended in 2018, guaranteed media freedom, but most of the journalists remained wary because of the heavy penalties for defamation. They suffered from a lack of resources and training, making it harder for them to organize themselves. Despite there not being any journalists killed or citizens harmed by journalists in recent years, systemic corruption and poverty remained problems for the country of Cosmos.
As mentioned by the BBC News Comoros Profile, the archipelago of islands had been trying to consolidate political stability and using their picture-perfect beaches to climb out of poverty after more than 20 coups. The media was controlled by authorities, risking arrest and detention for journalists, suspending newspapers, and putting radio stations off the air.
The same BBC News Media Profile informed that the radio was the dominant medium in the country of Comoros. The national state-run network competed with regional services and private stations. Other than that, they also had a national TV service and a handful of private TV stations. Not to mention that some areas could pick up broadcasts from the neighboring French island of Mayotte.
As far as the printed press in Comoros went, most papers published weekly; a feeble advertising market, poverty and poor distribution inhibited circulation. The leading titles were Al-Watwan, published on Grand Comore, and Kwezi, published on Mayotte.
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Arklejda Oshafi is studying Journalism and Computer Science at the American University in Bulgaria. She’s passionate about writing and spreading awareness regarding media freedom across the world.
