Assessment of media development in Mozambique

This study assesses the state of pluralistic media in Mozambique and current trends in its development based on the Media Development Indicators (MDIs) elaborated by UNESCO and endorsed by the Intergovernmental Council of the International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) at its 26th session in March 2008. During the same meeting, Mozambique requested UNESCO to carry out a study that would use the new indicators to assess its national media landscape. In 2009-2010, UNESCO collaborated with MISA-Mozambique to organize the study. Mozambique was thus one of the first countries to apply the MDIs in a systematic way. 

The study’s overall goal is to examine the framework within which the media can best contribute and benefit from good governance and democratic development. The specific objective is to assess the existence or otherwise of a legal, political, institutional, and infrastructural framework that favors press freedom, pluralism, and diversity of the media in Mozambique and produce recommendations to the appropriate actors based on the findings. 

UNESCO’s MDIs, on which the analysis is based, provide an instrument for evaluating the media sector through the following five categories: 1. System of regulation; 2. Plurality and diversity of the media; 3. Media as a platform for democratic discourse; 4. Professional capacity building; 5. Technical and infrastructural capacity. Taken together, the five categories provide an overview of the media environment that is required for ensuring freedom of expression and media pluralism and diversity. As such, they constitute an important tool for guiding the initiatives of actors working in media development, including policymakers. The application of these indicators to assess the current media environment in Mozambique brought to light some reminders of the most recent processes of transformation in the country, in particular, the transition from a one-party state to a democratic system with the first multi-party elections in 1994, only 15 years ago.