Afrobarometer has released a report of a survey on the world press freedom day which revealed that Africans support the media holding government accountable.
It stated, “Most Africans are supportive of media government to account and favour press freedom over government regulation, the latest Afrobarometer Pan Africa profile shows.”
The new report, which was based on 45,600 interviews across 38 African countries in 2024/2025, showed that citizen assessments of whether media freedom is protected in their country are mixed, adding that substantial minorities in most countries and a large minority in Mali favour government control over what the media can publish.
72% of the African countries support the media playing a role in holding government accountable, with Mauritius having 86%, Nigeria having 83%, Ghana having 82%, Congo-Brazzaville and Chad having 81% each.
Assessment of whether the media is free are mixed, with 53% of the respondents saying the media in their country is largely free, while 43% of the respondents argue that it is a subject of censorship.
Again, a media survey conducted in both 2019/2021 and 2024/2025 shows that the freedom of the media has declined by 4 percentage points.
It added that people who see the media in their country as largely free are less likely to support media freedom than those who see their media as unfree.
Afrobarometer is a pan-African, non-partisan survey research network which provides reliable data on African experiences and evaluations of democracy, governance and quality of life.
By Florence Asamoah Adom