CHAPTER 4: AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER THEMATIC TRENDS: 2011-2021 media reports. In the Republic of Congo, state media have no allocation in the national budget, and there is no state support for the media, neither in terms of direct assistance nor through tax exemptions. Effectively, based on these examples and more, it can thus be asserted that national broadcasters in Africa remain vulnerable to political interference. They are also underfunded, which limits their ability to perform public service broadcasting which, at the very least, carries the responsibility of informing, educating and entertaining. The AMBs also showed that journalists who worked for state-funded media were generally underpaid and most likely to practice self-censorship to remain employed, if not to protect their own lives, depending on the circumstances and context. "...journalists who work for state-funded media are generally underpaid and most likely to practice selfcensorship..." The same broadcasters are also often poorly equipped. These challenges have been highlighted by the AMBs in Nigeria, Gabon, Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Madagascar, Benin, Eswatini, Mali, Kenya, DRC and Senegal. In some countries, regulation is fragmentary and imprecise; in others, the regulation of telecommunications and broadcasting is harmonised (see 2018 AMB for Senegal; 2018 AMB for Namibia). In terms of professional practice, many tendencies seem prevalent in most countries. There is constant reference to the encroachment and pervasiveness of corruption in journalism (i.e. payment for coverage), weak investigative journalism, and hyper-focus on political stories at the expense of local and other subject areas. There are also high levels of precarity where journalists are under-represented in labour unions or professional associations. For example, see the following AMBs: Benin (2021), Burkina Faso (2019), Madagascar (2019), Cameroon (2018), Zambia (2021), Togo (2021) and Kenya (2016). 4.1 Political context as determining force Many AMBs conducted in sub-Saharan African countries between 2011 - 2021 (see list in Appendix B) show a pattern in the relationship between the political context within which the media operates and the internal and external dynamics of such media. Generally speaking, the stabler the political environment of a country, and the more functional its democratic institutions are, the freer, more viable and more 8 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER 11 YEARS IN REVIEW