CHAPTER 4: AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER THEMATIC TRENDS: 2011-2021 expression and the media. As noted in the 2018 AMB, “public authorities are often quick to invoke the protection of public order as a pretext to stifle this freedom, which is most often suppressed during electoral periods when tensions are running high”. Ironically, it is during the same periods that an unencumbered media is indispensable to democratic politics. Furthermore, in the Republic of Congo, it also seems that where oversight is needed the most, journalists tend, sometimes due to death threats, to shy away from such topics as “national security, mining, oil, contracts, forest management, logging…”, which allows corruption and other unscrupulous activities to flourish. Although Madagascar guarantees both freedom of expression and freedom of the media through several legislative instruments, the unstable political context has meant that “those who dare to openly criticise the government may be subject to retaliation in their private and professional lives in the form of threats of dismissal, relocation or legal proceedings” (Madagascar AMB 2019; 2020: 6). The AMB continues to note that “journalists, whether from the opposition, private or public media, are careful about what they say, publish or express in the public arena, namely through their "...there is a consistent and recurrent gap between the enabling constitutional provisions for freedom of expression..." respective media houses” since “arrests and lawsuits against journalists have been carried out in recent years” (Ibid.). In these contexts, there is a consistent and recurrent gap between the enabling constitutional provisions for freedom of expression (and in some cases, freedom of the press), a country’s legislative infrastructure and the actual operating conditions of the media. This pattern occurs throughout several countries and lingers if the political conditions remain unchanged. In transitional societies, as was the case in Malawi (2012 AMB) between the Mutharika and Banda presidencies, the picture reflects the tension between the democratic tendencies fostered by the emerging political dispensation and the authoritarian tendencies reflecting the legacy of the preceding system. It also shows the reluctance of new political actors to embrace democratic practices fully. In respect of this, the AMB’s recommendation was to encourage local civil society actors to lobby for legislative interventions or engage in programmes to 10 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER 11 YEARS IN REVIEW