Mali
In a continent dominated by almost constant government harassment of the
press, Mali continues to serve as a hopeful example for the future. With
two notable exceptions this year--the arrest and beating of 15 journalists
covering an opposition press conference in August, and the censorship of
a private radio station--there has been no organized government harassment
of the media. The free press, consisting of 30 print media houses, 35 weeklies,
and four dailies, operates without fear of reprisal. Self-censorship is
rare, and although the country's press law, with its extremely punitive
presumption-of-guilt standard, is one of the most repressive in Africa,
it is seldom applied. The legislature has discussed extensive revisions
to the law, which was written in 1991, during wartime.
There are an estimated 75-200 stations in the Union of Free Radio and
Television Broadcasters, and Mali's radio programming is considered the
freest in Africa. The country has 52 radio stations (10 in the capital
of Bamako alone), and even the most remote regions of the country receive
broadcasts. There is one government television station, and on the 1997-98
agenda for the national assembly are plans to revise the statutes to allow
for private-sector television ownership. The country gained access to the
Internet in September through the state telecommunications company SOTELMA.
Four private companies operate the new network, which will have a capacity
of 80,000 lines by the end of 1998.