African journalists applaud the presence of Chinese media in Africa

Africa-China relations can be described as complex. With the good that encompasses industrialisation, infrastructure development and employment creation, the Chinese are also credited for crimes such as tax evasion, labour exploitation, and wildlife poaching, negatives that have since contributed to the undesirable imaging of China and the Chinese people by citizens of different African countries.

The complexity in relations therefore lies in that, Africa cannot say that the bad outweigh the good.

One area of Africa-China relations seldom spoken about is the role the presence of Chinese media in Africa is playing in reporting Africa’s news worthy issues to the rest of the globe. To this end, African Journalists concur that Chinese media have cautiously maintained objectivity in their coverage of African issues.

“Their coverage might tend to lean more on Chinese ventures and their successes in Africa,” says Moraa Obiria, a Kenyan Journalist. Moreover she said that regardless of that fact, “Chinese media in Africa have acted as a feeder of unique news and features to mainstream media, thereby increasing access to information among the African citizenry.”

As China busied itself with aggressively exploring diverse opportunities in various sectors across Africa, its media provided a platform for understanding Sino-Africa relations, especially cultural, social and economic. In so doing journalists say employment opportunities mushroomed.

“They have provided job opportunities to many journalists. Some of whom had been shed off from the local media houses as they effected cost cutting measures,” she says.

Since the global popularity of the social media, print media suffered a blow, as both advertising and newspaper copy sales significantly dropped. Some newspapers were hence compelled to retrench staff and adapt by embracing digital media, harnessing it to regain lost ground. Chinese media such as Xinhua News Agency and China Daily to cite a few, have become an invaluable source of income for African journalists over the years.

The presence of Chinese media did not only translate to jobs for journalists but it is attributed for influencing employment opportunities in almost all other sectors.

Ndumiso Mlilo, a South African Journalist is of the view that Chinese people did not know much about Africa until the presence of their media in Africa. Given that media outlets like Xinhua publish content in many languages, including Chinese Mandarin, Mlilo says potential Chinese investors were able to gain a comprehensive understanding of the African business environment, thus agreements were reached and contracts were signed in many African countries.

“The Chinese media in Africa is the conduit to bring about understanding between the Chinese Africans. For deals to be signed both sides have to learn about each other’s business cultures,” he says.

Journalists are also in agreement that Chinese media also tend to counter propaganda from other media, by highlighting the good done by Africans and Chinese.

“I think this is one area where the Chinese have really had an effect. They employed African journalists themselves to cover African issues, which is a very commendable effort. They have also had the thrust of telling the proper African stories from the African perspective, thus helping balance the equilibrium with biased Western media houses such as BCC, CNN and Fox News,” asserts Andrew Kunambura, a Zimbabwean Journalist.

Otsile Valentine Keobokile worked for Xinhua News Agency in Botswana for a year, between 2015 and 2016. She refers to her experience as an eye opener. “Chinese media do not focus on negative reporting of stories but focuses on positivity, stories that an individual can benefit from or should I say social development stories. They are not for attacking but instead, they encourage the finding of solutions,” she shares.

Common traits she found between the local and Chinese media is the freedom given the journalists to work and be creative.  Journalists she purports are given a chance at personal and professional development. Often, she says reporters are sent outside the country to gain further experiences through workshops or further studies.

While working for Xinhua, Keobokile had the opportunity to go for training in Kenya at the Xinhua News Agency Headquarters. “I went there to learn about how they write their stories, the type of stories they focus on and the structure or format preference in writing their stories,” she says.

Xinhua News Agency, just to single out one Chinese media, describes itself as the official press agency of the People’s Republic of China. It is the biggest and most influential media organization in China and one of the major international news agencies alongside Reuters, AP and AFP, as well as the largest news agency in the world in terms of correspondents worldwide.

It has more than 13,000 Chinese and foreign staff, with 31 offices in China and over 150 overseas offices under 7 continental bureaus respectively in Hong Kong, Moscow, New York, Mexico City, Nairobi, Cairo and Brussels. Thus it releases over 1000 text, photo, audio and video news in 8 languages every day to its 50,000 plus subscribers across the world. Xinhua offers its African subscribers stories, photos and videos on latest hot international, African and Chinese news; in-depth analysis of political activities, economic activities and foreign affairs between China and Africa. So far it has 22 offices in Sub-Sahara.

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