CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISION OF THE MEDIA IN AFRICA: A STUDY OF MALI AND NIGERIA

Abstract

Media outlets in any country require a policy or a constitutional guide to regulate its operations so that both the media and government agencies as well as members of the society can work towards achieving a common goal. This underscores the importance of a national communication policy. Constitutional provisions of the media is an act of legislation which gives the media industries the right to freedom of expression, the right to information and opinions, without restrictions. Every country in Africa has its media policies which bind the operations of the media. This study tries to do a comparative analysis of the constitutional provisions of the media in Nigeria and Mali using the democratic participation theory. This study adopted the library research approach in doing the comparison. Findings show, that the media and security agencies possess a strong mutual distrust and there is no relationship between the two agencies. It was therefore recommended that there should be full recognition and implementation of the right of the press especially the right to information and expression in both countries and the press should be seen by security agencies as the watchdog.