Agência de Informação de Moçambique

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The Agência de Informação de Moçambique ( AIM ) is the semi-state news agency in Mozambique , it is the only news agency in the country.

tasks

The AIM is the main news source for the country. As a semi-state run institution, it is legally mandated to collect and distribute news about Mozambique. The press law is considered very good and progressive . Just like national radio and national television, AIM also has the explicit mandate to disseminate diversity of opinion and linguistic diversity (Article 11 of the 1991 Press Law). Mozambique is a multilingual country, 13 main languages ​​are spoken, ethnologists list 43 languages . The state mass media are explicitly guaranteed independence from any influence.

A major focus on behalf of AIM is the cooperation with other news agencies. The Pan African News Agency , Reuters , the state Russian RIA Novosti , the Portuguese news agency Lusa (Lusa Agência de Notícias de Portugal, SA), the state Chinese agency Xinhua (New China), the Italian Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata and the Agence France-Presse have been allowed to operate in Mozambique. AIM also takes over and translates messages.

AIM also publishes a free biweekly PDF service in English with news about Mozambique and Southern Africa produced in Brighton , England , and a photo service. His London correspondent is John Hughes. The site has a simple design, which enables reduced loading times against the background of the often overloaded Internet providers and telephone connections within Mozambique.

Agency history

The agency's history is closely linked to the history of Mozambique . From the beginning of the 1960s, the later ruling party FRELIMO took up the armed struggle against the dictatorship in the “mother country” and for the country's independence in what was then the Portuguese colony of Mozambique ("Portuguese East Africa") . It was not until June 25, 1975, after a long and destructive colonial war, that FRELIMO was able to proclaim the independence of the People's Republic of Mozambique .

With the independence of Mozambique it became clear that the former rulers had left hardly any solid structures. Above all, no mass media that could convey information and education, basic values ​​and behavioral options to the population. The creation of state-owned media was the only avenue for poor and unstructured civil society.

In 1976 the semi-state AIM was founded. Founding member were among others Luís Carlos Patraquim , the avant-garde - journalist Carlos Cardoso , who became a journalistic idol of a whole generation before his assassination on November 22, 2000th The director became Mia Couto , the most famous and internationally renowned writer in Mozambique .

After the War of Independence, a bloody civil war ensued , supported by a war of destabilization by the apartheid regime in South Africa , and the country plunged into continuous fighting and famine for 17 years, wreaking havoc on Mozambique. An important milestone in the development of media policy in Southern Africa was the transformation process in South Africa from the apartheid regime to democracy.

Only this development made the peace agreement in Mozambique between the ruling party FRELIMO and the opposition RENAMO possible in 1992 , which marked the beginning of a western democratic development with a free press in Mozambique. Despite enormous efforts to rebuild , Mozambique is still one of the poorest countries in the world; more than half of the population lives in poverty . Up until 2006, the print media had more of a trend-setting function and are an elite medium with a reach of two to five percent of the population. A lively media landscape in an increasingly market-based environment has developed from a state-controlled announcement journalism.

In 1996, AIM was a founding member of Aliança das Agências de Informação de Língua Portuguesa (ALP), the association of Portuguese-language news agencies.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) 2004/05: Mozambique at a glance . In: Southern Africa Media Directory. Available as a PDF from www.misa.org
  2. ↑ Reinhard Keune: Does media development have a future? Some conclusions from 35 years of German media aid , p. 651. In: Nord-Süd-aktuell 4/2002, pp. 651–656 - Lecture at the seminar "Practice and Perspectives of German Media and Journalist Funding" (Bonn, 13. – 14 November 2002). The author headed the Friedrich Ebert Foundation media department for over 25 years and was President of the UNESCO media program IPDC, International Program for the Development of Communication , for two electoral terms .

literature

See also

Web links