HL: What is your current assessment of the media landscape of international broadcasting services across Africa, if we think about who the major players are, and what role they are playing currently?

BO: I’d say the major players vary depending on the region, the language, and the medium. There’s a general sense of recognition for international brands such as the BBC or CNN, VOA – if you’re looking at Anglophone Africa, but even across the continent. In Francophone Africa, which is when I’m based, there’s a lot of reverence towards Rfi, France 24. And then in Lusophone Africa, you might have the Luso Agency. And I think generally as a journalist, as a correspondent, when you manage to transition from using national broadcasters or local platforms to international media outlets, there’s a feeling that you are getting access to media outlets that have a lot of technology, high editorial standards, exposure, being able to build on capacity and diversity. And a lot of these media outlets are now heavily investing in local languages, or at least the more national languages. And [they are] using that international brand and recognition to be able to reach out to people in Swahili, or in Amharic, or in Wolof or in Pidgin, as a way of still building on an international brand, but also being able to get loyalty from people who are from specific languages and regions in the continent.

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HL: How are audiences responding to that?  

BO: I do remember, right before I joined the BBC, there was the big 2020 expansion and a lot of it was happening in East Africa and there was excitement. People were seeing text in BBC Pidgin, for instance. It could be a very serious story in courts around, say, what Russia is doing in the region, but it’s being said in a language that they understand, that they resonate with.

And, there was a way also of recording history and a way of being able to make people feel connected with what’s happening across the world. There was one journalist I worked with in particular who was translating and supporting the Amharic team, and being able to coin words that were more prevalent, say in English or in other languages, into Amharic, was quite a journey for him and being able to give these stories a resonance to people like himself. So there was excitement with this language expansion.

There’s an interconnectedness that comes with having these international outlets, but there’s also some backlash and criticism, especially over the years, as people start to recognise how they should be reflected in international media – so strong identity around colonialism, post-colonialism, international identities. People do criticise, for instance, the BBC, if they make comments around the continent, or they might be critical of Al Jazeera, if they make certain references to certain parts of the continent.  

So it’s both sides: it’s the fact that they are celebrated for making an effort to reach out to audiences. But there’s also a sense of caution because an understanding that with that reach there is a need to be able to portray people as accurately as possible in a way that they are able to see themselves and see themselves represented. 

HL: Concerning the 2020 expansion and the digitalisation of language services, what impact has that had on the media landscape? 

BO: Ultimately speaking, because these broadcasters are being funded by their own governments, then they will have a lot more leeway, or they tend to prioritise their editorial and their outreach, based on how they’re receiving funding and where those priorities in terms of media expansion is. But it’s quite a big gap when you look at many of the African markets where linear and broadcast media still dominate, where people reach out for news or they’ll be able to get their entertainment.  

So, for instance, when there was the big push towards digital media, particularly with the BBC, [or] DW, [or] VOA, there were certain incidents that happened across the continent and then had to lead to a sort of rethinking of that strategy, the war in Sudan being one example whereby a lot of the infrastructure was being destroyed, and BBC Arabic had always been providing an understanding of what’s going on not just within Sudan and the Horn of Africa, but even across the Middle East, and this had to be retained because those audiences needed a form of reliable news.  

But the shift to digital obviously means that a lot of audiences that still do rely on radio frequencies, on television signals, on things that are being reprinted in newspapers and other forms of broadcast media, will no longer be accessible to them. And in most instances, these markets may be filled out by other players who are now emerging in the region. But it also means that international, especially Western broadcasters, may lose a critical audience that is not urban, that is not peri-urban, that is still living a lot in the rural areas and they do still need reliable forms of information, which they’ve always been getting from a lot of local and international media outlets. 

“There’s a way in which China and Russia are increasing their footprint through the media to be able to, not just in terms of directing narratives, but also being able to take up a space that is now increasingly being left by the West.“

HL: Who are the other players in the African media landscape and to what extent are they leveraging that opportunity of the gap that has been left by Western media services’ shift to digital? 

BO: So I mean, even before the whole re-strategizing by, DW or BBC or VOA, China and Russia, and even Turkey more recently, have been building their media presence in the region. So China’s Xinhua, for instance, has more than 30 bureaus across the continent, which is much more than I think, even the BBC itself, which has quite a number outside. And that’s been a big rise in the last two decades or so. Star Times, which is a digital TV provider, has been able to connect a lot of people during the transition from linear broadcasting towards digital set-top boxes. Star Times distributed satellite dishes to about 10,000 rural areas in 20 African countries, which gives them access to digital media and also that Star Times package will come with a lot of Chinese programme, and a lot of Chinese media. And then China, both through the government and through media entities has been training a lot of African journalists, many from Kenya who I know, people who I was working with in Radio Africa Group, people who were working with the state broadcaster KBC, and various other broadcasters.

And this is replicated across the continent. So they received training in how to use digital media, how to be able to do broadcasting, how to be able to present the news among other things. And this tends to take place both on the continent, as well as within China. And these are not templates that are new. These are templates that already existed from Western media because for a long time, outlets like the BBC used to have talent reach programmes whereby they open up not just job vacancies for journalists who are based in the region, but also training opportunities, apprenticeship schemes, which then enable people to be able to get an understanding of the values and the output from the BBC or even from VOA. DW has a very big school in Germany where they do this, so they do have a template that they’re working with.

RT, which is the Russian state broadcaster, has been doing something similar. They put out a call out nearly a year ago for journalists on the continent to be trained in misinformation, disinformation, and they have been hiring a lot of local journalists, a way of enabling them to say the news from their perspective. And they also do receive training in Russia. Some of them have been covering the conflict in Ukraine, of course, using mostly the Russian lens. So, there’s a way in which China and Russia are increasing their footprint through the media to be able to, not just in terms of directing narratives, but also being able to take up a space that is now increasingly being left by the West. 

HL: What do you think is the purpose behind these practices from China and Russia? 

BO: I think it’s one very effective soft power tool because then it allows them to be able to use an easy resource. And information is quite powerful: how you’re able to project information, whether it’s within the region or outside the region, and how you’re able to convey yourself and in some ways, earn some gratitude and at the same time earn a positive narrative across the region.  

I can give you one small anecdote. This is not necessarily about media, but also just about other investments in the region. There was a point where the Thika Superhighway in the Eastlands region of Nairobi was being built, and I was in a taxi and the driver kept saying, “This is a great thing that China is doing, keeping us connected.” It doesn’t necessarily mean that he feels a very strong sense of allegiance to China itself as a state or a power entity. But it is sufficient for it to demonstrate that China can compete on a global field with various other entities. In a world where Hollywood, Netflix, would be dominating popular culture, there is still a space for China, Russia, Turkey, even India and, various other powers to still take up within discourse and in being able to shape that information. There’s a sense of building authenticity around the media broadcast themselves.  

CGTN normally has an Africa focused broadcast, at around the same time as the BBC has its Focus On Africa programme. CGTN is about one hour long. They tend to go across various parts of the continent. They have a lot of African correspondents and stringers, and it’s a way of demonstrating that they do have the reach and capacity to be able to show you in diversity the region at the same time slot as another major competitor. It may be deliberate – it may not be. But it is a way of juxtaposing how those two news outlets are giving you a sense and flavour of what’s happening on the continent and how it’s authentic, or how it may not be perceived as authentic.

Another notable thing is when the military ruler of Burkina Faso visited Russia about a month ago, he was full of praise of Russian media for authentically portraying African countries and this is something that already works for Russia’s own propaganda and its output and its reflection in the region. It could be a way of also just demonstrating that they can empower media within the region in a way that the West is reducing in its own capacity to do so.