State Broadcasters versus Public Broadcasters

In the Eastern Africa Region, the public broadcasters are not subject to political interference or commercial influence. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including licence fees, individual contributions, public financing and commercial financing(advertising), advertising and sponsorships. These modes of funding have proved to be unsustainable in the long run which has affected innovation in programming and technological investment. The public broadcasters include the British Broadcasting Corporation(BBC), Kenya Broadcasting Corporation( KBC), Uganda Broadcasting Corporation( UBC), Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation et al. Public broadcasters in Eastern Africa have faced increasing competition from private media in recent years. Despite this, many public broadcasters have continued to provide valuable services to their communities and remain an important part of the media landscape in the region.

Kenyan Journalists at work photo courtesy Media Observer

In the recent Twitter space hosted by the Eastern Africa Editors Society, we were able to discuss this and very crucial things emerged. We started off by understanding the difference between public broadcasters and State Broadcasters. Mr Maurice Mugisha, Deputy Managing Editor at Uganda Broadcasting Corporation explained that the public broadcasters have been turned to state broadcasters due to the geopolitics of the region. He explained that due to the nature of the set-up of most Public broadcasters, they mostly end up being state broadcasters. Mr Gaitho who is a former managing editor at Nation Media in Kenya explained the same saying that ideally, Public broadcasters work for the public while state broadcasters work for the state.

Uganda journalists Image courtesy The Independent Uganda

They both agreed that most public broadcasters have been turned into state broadcasters. Mr Gaitho explained this by saying “Most public broadcasters are used by the state to propagate what the state wants.” Many panellists agreed on this with Raziah Mwawanga a veteran Journalist from Tanzania explaining how this works in Tanzania. She explained that state broadcasters are not allowed to work freely, adding that most stories are killed as the editors are afraid of the state.

All panellists agreed that this shouldn’t be the case, they argued that public broadcasters are treated this way because most of the finances they get them from the state. Mr. Darius argued that most journalists are failing as they are not liberated in their minds saying “There is a big problem of media independence. If journalist are not independent in their minds, it remains a big challenge.”

In your own understanding, what’s the difference between Public Broadcaster and State Broadcasters?