2023-09-26 22:11:53
The private Congolese press is in trouble. At least thirty weeklies have gone out of business over the last ten years, due to lack of financial resources and subsidies. Their promoters want to see the audiovisual royalty (RAV) be extended to this private press.
A few steps from the Place de la Grande Poste, in the city center of Brazzaville, Dany, 59, runs an open-air newspaper sales outlet. Sitting on a concrete seat, he recounts the string of more or less independent weeklies that have disappeared from the shelves of his newsstand in recent years: “There are a lot of newspapers that I used to receive and that I no longer receive. For example : The sovereign, Les Echos du Congo, The African Challenge, The Baobab, The Observer, Shock, The Street dies, etc. All these newspapers no longer come. It’s a loss for me », he complains.
The Weekly African Tam-Tam is also among these newspapers which have closed. They have all long relied on their small income from sales or . A risky policy, according to independent journalist Arsène Séverin. “ Unfortunately, the market is very small for them. We cannot prosper in this case », he comments.
Old titles and new ones such, Polélé-Polélé, Chilli Salt or even the Nouvel Horizon are seriously lacking in funding, analyzes Asia professional Dominique de Marseille. He adds that their promoters have not been able to set up significant capital to facilitate their operation. A point of view shared by Arsène Séverin: “ The economic model that has been built here, very often, is that it is politicians who put money into newspapers, radio and television. And, when they decide not to put in any more money, the newspaper takes a hit and closes. »
Extend the fee to save the private press
Following advocacy led in the early 2000s by civil society, the authorities introduced the audiovisual royalty (RAV) collected for the benefit of public press organs. It is deducted up to 500 CFA Francs (0.76 euro cents) from each electricity bill and paid first to the Public Treasury.
Jean Clotaire Himbou, secretary general of the Association of Press Editors of Congo, is now pleading for the RAV to be extended to the private press, but without much hope. “ This RAV actually arrives at the Treasury, but it enters into the common mass. And who says common mass, no one knows who puts their hand in and who doesn’t put their hand in “, he notes.
Given the fact that rights holders do not regularly benefit from the RAV, the Congolese Consumer Rights Association recently called for the repeal of the law establishing this RAV.
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