Public broadcasting in a changing political & regulatory environment: The case of Africa

The end of the Cold War triggered media‐political liberalization on the African continent. Private commercial and community radio stations were launched. Divergent voices are being heard and many more people have access to the mass media. Many Western government‐owned broadcasters joined in the fray and lined up African affiliates to broadcast or rebroadcast their programming. This intense international and local competition has affected governmental public service broadcasting. Government‐owned stations must now decide whether to continue being broadcast media which serve all citizens or just ‘niche’ broadcasters. The position of this paper is that commercial pressures and competition need not lead African broadcasters to abandon their traditional role of broadcasting non‐profitable local cultural programming.