South Africa-

Analysts say South Africa's freedom media has successfully resisted Chinese government efforts to influence its content, in recognition of a recent study by Freedom House in the United States.


Anton Harber, a journalism professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, said: "We have deep historical doubts about the state media in South Africa.

He said it stemmed from South Africa's history of apartheid, a time when the media was censored.

Reggy Moalusi, director general of the South African National Editors Forum, said: "The South African media is resilient and always skeptical of issues influenced by certain ideas.

Freedom House's "Beijing 2022 Global Media Influence" report said South Africans including journalists were generally highly skeptical of the Chinese national narrative, and despite the Chinese government's successful relationship with the ruling African National Congress, "South African media coverage of China remains generally diverse, often critical of the Chinese government." Areas

of Concern
The
Freedom House report says there are democratic governments and free media in South Africa, but the Chinese government continues to try to influence the media environment in South Africa, analyzing China's media influence in 30 countries around the world between January 2019 and December 2021.

StarTimes Group, a private Chinese company implicated with the CCP, acquired a 20 percent stake in local satellite service StarSat to broadcast programs on China's state television channel, the report said.

South Africa's independent media group, which publishes 20 newspapers, has been acquired by a Chinese consortium since 2013 for a 20 percent stake, including state media, the report said. Its digital version of Independent Online is the second most read news site in South Africa.

Independent media regularly publish content from China's Xinhua News Agency as well as China's national perspective. Freedom House's report said that "none of its news organizations have made too many negative comments about China."
The
report found that independent media published 16 articles, interviews and speeches by China's ambassador and consul general in 2020 and 2021, as well as articles by local South African academics and politicians who supported Beijing's position.

Its overseas editor wrote an editorial during the pandemic making false claims about the origins of the coronavirus. Independent journalists participated in free media trips to China, and a freelance journalist told Freedom House that topics and links were sometimes provided directly by the Chinese embassy.

One example of China's apparent influence on independent media is the abrupt departure of columnist Azad Essa in 2018 after writing an article denouncing Beijing's mistreatment of Uighurs.

Aziz Hartley, editor-in-chief of independent media, responded to VOA's request for comment, saying, "Editors have complete autonomy over their publications, and their journalists adhere to the principles of impartiality, ethics and objectivity."
China's efforts to influence South Africa's media environment have slowed in recent years,
the report said.

On the other hand

, Shao Hesong, the
second secretary of the Chinese embassy in Washington, asked the Chinese embassy in South Africa to answer questions raised, which did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Dennis Munene, executive director of the China-Africa Center at the Nairobi Institute for African Policy, said in an editorial published in China Daily in July that cooperation between Chinese and African media needs to be strengthened.

Under the Chinese government's China-Africa Vision 2035 plan, China and Africa "plan to strengthen cooperation in news reporting, launch audiovisual content, and train media professionals and media skills," he said. He said there was a need to "deepen media exchanges" and that Beijing "could develop technical tools for fact-checking on issues related to China-Africa relations."

Africa Discovery


reports that while South Africa is highly resistant to Chinese government influence, the situation in other African countries varies.

Angeli Datt, senior research analyst at Freedom House, told VOA, "Our research has found that Beijing is trying to use the same tactics in Africa that it uses in Western countries, such as signing content-sharing agreements, paying editorial-style ads or publishing ambassadorial op-eds."
China's influence efforts in Nigeria were "high,"
ranking fourth among the 30 countries surveyed, the report said. The Chinese embassy in Nigeria reportedly contacted editors and even paid journalists not to report negative news.

China has worked hard to influence Kenya's media, but Kenya has also seen significant resistance. Kenya's newspaper The Flag, for example, published an investigative report on abuses on railways managed by a Chinese state-owned company that threatened to file a lawsuit. But The Banner refused to retract the report, and the Chinese embassy canceled an advertisement in the newspaper.



Beijing's media influence in these 30 countries is "high" or "very high" in 16 countries, with only half resisting it and the other half weak.

"The Chinese government, under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, is accelerating a massive influence offensive against media outlets and news consumers around the world," the report said.”