GHANA
The Ghanaian media is remarkably one of the most unfettered and freest on the continent of Africa. Since the government of President John Agyekum Kufuor came to power on January 7 2001, the freedom and independence that the media hither to enjoyed has been given a significant boost with the government's declaration of the abolition of a criminal libel law which since colonial times led hung like the classical sword of Damocles over free speech.

The past twenty years has seen Ghana's Media in what could be described as its darkest period. The government of Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings which ruled during this period used various methods including threats of criminal libel suits, to cow the press, especially the privately owned.

Today, newspapers, radio and TV station are mushrooming due to the new political dispensation.

The media falls into two main streams of ownership, the state and private. Currently there are up to 50 newspapers, journals and periodicals which appear regularly on the newsstands. Until the beginning of this year, there were only three dailies; the Daily Graphic with a circulation of about 100,000; the Ghanaian Times 50,000 and the Evening News 10,000 from these three. Apart state owned dailies are two others the Daily Guide and Accra Mail which are privately owned.

For strict categorisation, newspapers in Ghana can be grouped in the following divisions namely: Socio-Political, Business and Financial, Sports, and Entertainment.

SOUTH AFRICA
After Gutenberg discovered print in the 15th Century, the first publication to enter the South African market was published in Cape Town in 1824. This was "The South African Journal".

In 1882, the Newspaper Press Union was formed. It continues to this day in a different guise and under a different banner, but none-the-less continues to represent and negotiate on different platforms.The primary functions of the organisation today is of the lobbying and debating on print issues with Government and other stakeholders, interaction with other allied industry bodies on matters of mutual interest and for promoting reading.

Print Media S.A. is the overall body and among the five constituent bodies are the Newspaper Association of Southern Africa (NA) and the Community Press Association (CPA).Print Media S.A. represents all facets of the print media in South Africa and, with its origination in the NA, it is actually the oldest communications association in the country. Today, it represents the industry's views to relevant associations, bodies and government and is a major player in the drive for press freedom.

The Newspaper Association are forerunners in the Print Media in Education programme in South Africa. The NA membership comprises urban and metropolitan daily, weekly, twice weekly and monthly newspapers published in English, Afrikaans and Chinese. The NA fosters industry wide standards to facilitate greater and more effective use of the newspaper medium and places much importance of keeping abreast of international standards and new technology like digital transmission of advertising material. In fact, in the recent year some one billion S.A. Rand has been spent on upgrading of the newspaper printing facilities across the country.

The CPA represents the neighbourhood and community newspaper industry in South Africa and, through its constituent membership of Print Media S.A., like the NA, it too promotes NIE, is represented in Freedom of Commercial Speech Trust and other activities.The CPA ensures that standards of journalism, photographic and typographical excellence of its members are constantly challenged and enhanced through a number of sponsored competitions.

In addition, there is a local chapter of the Commonwealth Press Union (CPU) and the members include all of the major publishing houses in South Africa.

Of all adults in South Africa (the population is in the region of 45 million) 18.1% are reached by a newspaper.

Circulation of the 17 regional dailies is in excess of 1.2 million; the 4 Sunday newspaper reach just on one million circulation; and the non-dailies, of which there are 104, reach in excess of 1.6 million. Furthermore, the 151 free sheets reach in excess of 3 million average circulation.

Newspapers enjoy some 30% of the advertising spend in South Africa.
For further information on the area, contact:

Print Media SA - printmediasa@printmedia.org.za
NA - na@printmedia.org.za
CPA - cpa@printmedia.org.za

ZAMBIA
The Zambian newspaper industry is not very big. Broadly speaking Zambian newspapers can be classified in terms of government-owned on the one hand, and privately-run on the other. The government owns and runs two dailies - Times of Zambia and Zambia Daily Mail. In addition, there are weeklies - Sunday Times, Sunday Mail, and Financial Mail.

There is one daily newspaper - The Post - which is owned by a private company called Post Newspapers Limited. It is the sole independent daily. Apart from The Post, there are two other private newspapers - The Monitor, and National Mirror - which are published weekly. The Monitor, which comes out on Friday is owned by a group of journalists who have pulled resources, while the National Mirror is owned church organisations.

In terms of independence, the government-owned newspapers do not have a lot of independence. For one thing, the editors and managing directors are appointed by government. As such, more often than not, news stories tend to be inclined towards propping up government's position, rather than dissenting views. The private newspapers enjoy more independence in comparison to the state-run newspapers. But they face other constraints.

Press freedom is seriously constrained by legal provisions. There are over 20 pieces of legislation in the laws of Zambia which make the work of journalists difficult. Among them is the Official Secrets Act, Public Order Act, and Defamation of the President. Presently, the journalist organisations - Zambia Independent Media Association (ZIMA), Press Association of Zambia (PAZA), Zambia Media Women Association (ZAMWA), CPU-Zambia, and Zambia Union of Journalists (ZUJ) - have constituted a taskforce to discuss the enactment of a media and information bill with government.

Readership of the newspapers has been declining over the last 10 years. The prices of many newspapers have risen by as much as 500%, making newspapers a luxury for the majority of Zambians. Circulation figures have also fallen. By far the highest circulation newspaper is The Post with figures averaging between 20,000 and 25,000. The two state-owned dailies float between 15,000 and 20,000 copies. The Monitor prints about 10,000, while the National Mirror publishes between 5,000 and 6,000 copies.

Part of the reason for the fall in figures are the rising production costs, especially newsprint which has to be imported at great cost. Most of the newspapers are distributed in urban centres - Lusaka, the capital, and Copperbelt towns. The rest of the country receive newspapers a day or three after day of publication. Some towns rarely get newspapers. Because of this, some newspaper critics have said there is almost no Zambian newspaper that can be truely labelled national. In any case, even coverage of events is done mostly in urban centres. There is very little of rural content. In this, the newspapers are constrained, mostly, by limited finances and vehicles. But it is not entirely bleak. The Norwegian government has set up a media trust fund, aimed at helping to develop the newspapers.