SECTOR 3

his is to be done under the auspices of HAAC whose role, according to article
6 and 7 of law No. 92-021 that establishes it is among other things “to monitor
the quality and diversity of programs, the development of
production and establishment of national broadcasting as well
as the portrayal of the national and universal cultural heritage”.

...“everything that
needs to be said
but could threaten
the interests of the
‘prince’ is censored”.

In practice however, the way political information is processed
does not relect the diferent sensitivities on Television. For
example, the demonstrations of trade unionists and the
current developments in NGOs and Associations are totally
not allowed on public TV. Music and traditional songs are,
however, given a lot of airtime on radio.

One of the panelists concluded that in general “every bit of
communciation considered threatening the interests of the ‘prince’ is censored”.

Scores:
Individual scores:
1

Country does not meet indicator

2

Country meets only a few aspects of indicator

3

Country meets some aspects of indicator

4

Country meets most aspects of indicator

5

Country meets all aspects of the indicator

Average score:

1.9 (2007 = 3.0 ; 2009 = 2.0)

3.11 The state/public broadcaster offers as much
diverse and creative local content as economically
achievable.
Earlier on, during the former regime, the national TV broadcast good programs
but today it is all merry making and the screens are full of telenovelas [Latin
American soap operas] as found in most of the neighboring countries.
here was, however, an important amount of local content in the programs that
were featured in the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Benin in 2010. After
that everybody came back to business as usual which means 1/10 of their products
had local content while the rest of the programs were provided and controlled
by international institutions (e.g. UNICEF) in accordance with their speciic

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AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER BENIN 2011

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