|
Comoros Media
As recently as the early 1980s Comoros had no national
media.
State-run Radio Comoros, transmitting from Njazidja, was
not
strong enough to send clear signals to the republic's
other two
islands. In 1984 France agreed to provide Radio Comoros
with
funding for an FM (frequency modulation) transmitter
strong
enough to broadcast to all three islands, and in 1985 made
a
commitment to fund a national newspaper after a United
Nations
Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
study
revealed that Comoros was the only UN member lacking print
and
electronic media. A state-owned newspaper, Al
Watwany,
began operations in July 1985, first as a monthly and soon
afterward as a weekly. An independent weekly,
L'Archipel,
began publishing in 1988. A news agency, Agence Comores
Presse,
is now based in Moroni, and France has provided funds for
establishing a national television service. In 1989
Comoros had
an estimated 61,000 radios and 200 television sets.
In addition to national broadcasts on FM in Comoran
Swahili
and French, Radio Comoros in 1993 broadcast
internationally on
the shortwave band in Swahili, Arabic, and French. An
independent
commercial FM radio station, Radio Tropique FM, began
broadcasting in 1991, although it and its director,
political
activist Ali Bakar Cassim, have both been the object of
government ire over the station's readiness to criticize
the
Djohar regime.
During the independent media's brief career, its
representatives occasionally have been rounded up along
with
other critics of the government during the republic's
recurrent
bouts of political crisis. However, outlets such as Radio
Tropique FM and L'Archipel, which is noted for its
satirical column, "Winking Eye," continue to provide
independent
political commentary.
Data as of August 1994
|
