VZCZCXRO6741
PP RUEHBC RUEHBZ RUEHDH RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHJO RUEHKUK RUEHMA RUEHMR
RUEHPA RUEHRN RUEHROV RUEHTRO
DE RUEHNJ #0041/01 0251122
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 251122Z JAN 10
FM AMEMBASSY NDJAMENA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7609
INFO RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE
RUEHEE/ARAB LEAGUE COLLECTIVE
RUCNFUR/DARFUR COLLECTIVE
RHMFISS/HQ USAFRICOM STUTTGART GE
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 NDJAMENA 000041 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR AF/C AND S/USSES 
LONDON FOR POL - LORD 
PARIS FOR POL - KANEDA 
ADDIS ABABA FOR AU 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPAO PHUM PINR PREF PGOV PREL CD
SUBJECT: CHAD'S MEDIA CLIMATE EVOLVING POSITIVELY AS OPPOSITION 
MATURES 
 
REFTEL: NDJAMENA 13 
 
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SUMMARY AND COMMENT 
------------------- 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  Goual Nanassoum, head of an EU-funded project on 
empowering the media in Chad, told DCM Jan 22 that he believed that 
media freedom had improved over the past year as a consequence of 
both GoC and opposition commitment to the August 13, 2007 Accords. 
Nanassoum told us that he felt international support had been 
critical to evolution in the Chadian media climate, and offered that 
the GoC's greater tolerance of media criticism beginning in 2009 was 
due to the increasingly responsible stance that Chadian journalists 
were taking, as the Chadian opposition abandoned its strident and 
combative "enemy" approach to politics and assumed a more positive 
approach -- albeit still strongly critical of the government and its 
policies. Nanassoum is a respected journalist and historian with a 
deep knowledge of the media environment. His comments that evolution 
is occurring are encouraging.  END SUMMARY. 
 
---------------------- 
STATE OF MEDIA FREEDOM 
---------------------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  Nanassoum stressed that 2009 had been a year of limited, 
but nevertheless noticeable, progress for Chad in terms of media 
freedom.  He made clear that additional improvements were obviously 
necessary, in part because neither the government nor citizens were 
accustomed to working with a free media - with the result that press 
cards were not universally understood or respected.  Nanassoum 
described current attitudes of opposition-oriented journalists 
toward the GoC as "suspicious" rather than "fearful," as the number 
of cases of actual abuse was down significantly when compared with 
the situation in 2008.  Verbal confrontations between journalists 
and local authorities, particularly in areas of Chad where President 
Deby's popularity was not strong, continued to occur.  But this was 
a clear improvement over the violent attacks on journalists that had 
occurred in the past. 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  Reviewing progress toward the goal of rescinding 
Ordinance 5, Nanassoum recalled that two alternative draft laws 
prepared to address the widespread perception that the emergency 
Ordinance was out of date (as Chad was no longer at war) had turned 
out to be as bad as or worse than the original, which had in any 
case never been put into practice.  Both of the alternative texts 
were being allowed to languish in the National Assembly, where their 
flaws were well known.  There was a generalized appreciation that a 
new way forward was necessary, and that Ordinance 5 might be found 
unconstitutional if applied against a journalist who challenged it 
to court.  Four independent journalists had taken it upon themselves 
to prepare a different text that removed all criminal penalties for 
media-related offenses.  This document was under discussion among 
opposition members of the National Assembly. 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  Responding to our question on the status of the three 
other goals, besides rescinding Ordinance 5, of last May's 
"Etats-Generaux" meeting of journalists and government reps, 
Nanassoum noted that the call for a Maison des Medias had come to 
fruition, with the GoC having provided a building in the fall of 
2009, and international partners having contributed funding for 
training courses.  The notion of removing the onerous tax structure 
that applied to the independent media was still pending, as was 
ratification by the GoC of UNESCO's 1950 Florence Agreement on the 
importation of educational, scientific and cultural materials. 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  Journalists continued to charge that they were unable 
obtain adequate information from the GoC, said Nanassoum, and the 
Minister of Interior had threatened to break the pens of journalists 
who criticized the government - which had prompted the Prime 
Minister, Youssouf Saleh Abbas, to issue a denunciation of his 
colleague.  Nanassoum praised the Prime Minister for having arranged 
a grant to support the Maison des Medias, which he said he hoped 
would usher in a new era of more cordial relations between the media 
and government.  Proponents of greater media freedom existed 
throughout the Chadian government, Nanassoum continued, and 
included, in addition to the Prime Minister, many employees of the 
national television station - who were technical experts rather than 
politicians - some in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and a variety 
of others in the range of ministries.  The new President of the HCC 
was "talented and active, but very political," said Nanassoum. 
Those who were least open to press freedom tended to be in President 
 
NDJAMENA 00000041  002 OF 002 
 
 
Deby's inner circle. 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  The legal troubles of several opposition papers including 
La Voix appeared to have political motivations, said Nanassoum, but 
were complicated by the technical errors of the editors in adhering 
to laws on business operations.   Nanassoum recommended that 
journalists use the Chadian "Ethics Code" to defend their own rights 
and guide their behavior.  He urged continued assistance from the 
EU, UNESCO, U.S, Canada, Germany and others, all of whom have 
provided technical assistance in this sector to Chad. 
 
----------------------------------- 
EU EFFORTS TO IMPROVE MEDIA CLIMATE 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  Nanassoum described the broad goals of EU assistance in 
the area of media freedom, pointing out that the August 13, 2007 
Accords between the government and opposition - which the EU had 
endorsed - specified the need for reinforcing the role of the media 
in democratic processes, particularly in the lead-up to Chad's 
planned 2010 and 2011 elections.  The EU's goals with respect to its 
project on media empowerment were three-fold: 1) to bring about the 
regular convening of general meetings (Etats-Generaux) involving all 
players in the communications realm; 2) to provide training by 
European media professionals to ready the Chadian press corps to 
report on elections; 3) to encourage the development of 
self-regulating bodies of media professionals committed to 
responsible reporting standards. 
 
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COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  Nanassoum is a respected journalist and historian with a 
deep knowledge of the media environment. His comments that evolution 
is occurring are encouraging. 
 
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BIO DATA 
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¶8.  (SBU)  Nanassoum is a journalist and specialist in Chad's 
pre-colonial history.  He served as editor of "Tchad et Culture", a 
local magazine, before taking up the position of Secretary General 
of the local NGO, "Observatoire de la Dontologie et de l'Ethique 
des Mdias Tchadiens" (ODEMET), a body created by journalists with 
the aim of auto-regulating their profession and encouraging media 
freedom.  He currently heads the EU's "Empowering Media in the 
Democratic Process" project. 
 
¶9.  (U)  Minimize considered. 
 
NIGRO