No News Is Bad News: Central African Republic

Increasing polarization within the Central African Republic has extended to the media landscape. Physical attacks and threats against media and journalists are increasing. Newspapers are radicalizing their discourse and fail to maintain journalist objectivity. Media outlets were raided by the Seleka, destroying broadcast capacity or forcing them to stop reporting. As a result self-censorship among reporters is rampant. Media are concentrated in the capital and lack professional capacity and revenue. Individual reporters lack safety and there is widespread impunity for violence against journalists. During the three months period March - May 2014, two journalists were fatally attacked, one journalist was killed in connection to her work, 34 journalists were subject to various forms of threats, four journalists were forced to flee the country, five journalists were summoned by judicial authorities and three journalists were arrested.Due to low literacy rates, radio continues to be the main source of information. The coverage and broadcast capacity of state-owned outlets have decreased dramatically in recent years due. Despite their potential importance, community radio stations are not recognized officially by Central African law. The government is unable to exercise effective control and cannot provide services for its citizens. Because of this, communities look to civil society to deliver material and social services. Civil society is gradually becoming more structured at the national level. In particular, civil society groups are working with young people from Christian and Muslim communities, some of them the main perpetrators of violence during the recent crisis. This makes it crucial to vitalize connections between media and civil society groups to build a peaceful future.