Virus crisis piles pressure on African media

LAGOS: Collapsing revenues, rising layoffs: the coronavirus crisis is battering media outlets across Africa that were already struggling for cash and often facing pressure from hostile authorities.

The news of cutbacks was sudden and painful for journalists at two of Nigeria´s most popular independent newspapers when bosses from The Punch and Vanguard made their announcements last month. “It was a rude shock for me because I didn´t do anything wrong to warrant such treatment,” one Punch veteran told AFP, asking not to be named as he was still owed a “token” payoff.

The redundancies were just the latest to hit Nigeria´s press — one of the most vibrant on the continent — as the economic fallout from the pandemic has sent sales and advertising income plunging. “What is happening in Nigeria is not peculiar to us. The whole world is feeling the impact,” said Qasim Akinreti, the chairman of the Lagos Union of Journalists. “For us in the Nigerian media, the story is the same — we have lost hundreds of jobs in the past four months. In Kenya some media houses slashed wages by up to half, in Uganda a leading weekly halted printing, and in Namibia hours have been reduced and redundancy schemes fast-tracked.

The speed and severity of the current crunch has sparked calls for government bailouts — with private papers in Cameroon even holding a “dead press” day to denounce a lack of action. Authorities in some countries have heeded the pleas for help. Kenya´s national regulator on Friday unveiled what it called a “historic” fund worth just under $1 million to help some 150 broadcasters weather the storm.