Online resources such as The Nation provide Africans access to otherwise censored information   VIDEO Alphonso Van Marsh looks at how African journalists are going online to fight repression. Windows Media 28K 80K

September 17, 1999
Web posted at: 6:53 p.m. EDT (2253 GMT)

In this story: Whole world could be watching Vast unrealized potential RELATED STORIES, SITES

From Reporter Alphonso Van Marsh

NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- Leaders of many repressive African governments maintain their grip on power in part by controlling national newspapers, radio and television.

Now, however, the global reach of the Internet is eroding that monopoly on communications.

In Kenya, for instance, Frank Ojiambo edits The Nation, Kenya's largest online independent newspaper. Other newspapers subject to local censorship, such as Egypt's Middle East Times, promote banned articles on the Internet.

When Zambian officials pulled one paper's presidential expose off the streets, the story later appeared online.

The Internet offers another benefit to local African journalists, who have been beaten, jailed or even killed for reporting on corruption and scandal.

Whole world could be watching

According to journalism professor and media expert Joe Kahdi, repressive governments are less likely to harm reporters who have a worldwide audience.

"The moment their stories are published on the Net, it becomes an affair of the world," he says.

Of the 54 countries in Africa, 50 have at least some degree of Internet access. Affordable service providers are popping up across the continent, allowing more and more Africans to read about their leaders' flaws.

Vast unrealized potential

Kahdi says Africa still has a long way to go in tapping into the power of the Internet.

"It is sadly true that millions of Africans will never use the phone in their lives," he says. "But the truth of the matter is that once a simple story about an African dictator gets on the Net, the whole world reads about it. And when the whole world reads about it, there is an international reaction."

And African journalists hope that reaction can bring change to corrupt regimes.

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