A recent Economist article on press freedom in Africa lamented that freedom of speech in southern Africa is heading in the wrong direction. Press freedom in Africa is illustrative of the double standard that exists between the developed and developing world. At the same time as the US government is trying to silence WikiLeaks by denying it access to servers, squeezing its fund-raising, and prohibiting government employees from reading the released cables, our democratization projects uphold press freedom as an inviolable right.
Admittedly no African country matches America’s relative political transparency and none have the durability of our arms of government, which adjudicate conflicts that arise within our constitutional system. As I have long argued, however, African students have long eclipsed their European and American masters when it comes to the art of hypocrisy. Moreover, the continents despots will take every opportunity to justify their actions as consistent with those of the most enlightened western democracies, especially when it comes to muzzling the press. We say do as I say, but Africa’s leaders do as we do and call it democracy. Just like us.
