Located in the center of Africa, the Central African Republic (also known as CAR or Central A. Republic) is an African nation with less diversity. The traditional media outlets in the country are formed of print, broadcast and electronic media. But the media outlets are seriously hampered by the political conditions of the country. They are unable to run freely and often the government interferes with the media contents. So, the media freedom in the country is not ensured. Besides, the political unrest is another key reason that bars the journalists to work independently. In fact, the natural expression of media is unavailable here.
So, notable numbers of media outlet have been formed that work from outside of the country. The deteriorating situations did not allow the media outlets to have independent practice. So, a remarkable number of outlets have been working since a long ago to uphold the country. They receive fund form individuals or non-government organizations to run their activities.
The rate of illiteracy is more here than the neighboring countries and so the number of readerships is lower for the newspapers. A substantial number of newspapers are published here but the readership is minor but the people in CAR is fond of radio. In fact, radio is the leading media outlet that can reach people at any time of the day. Most of the people have their access to this broadcast media. It has become the greatest source of news and information for the people.
The media outlets have been suffering from the political instability since 1960. The government always interferes with the outlets and often check the media contents. Though the media outlets try to remain out of the political pressures and activities, they are accused of creating unrest through their respective outlets. It has made it troublesome for them to work independently. And gradually, the media outlets have lost their appeal because they cannot provide the right types of news and information for the audience.
There are seven newspapers at present in operation in the country and almost all of them are controlled by the government. The government sets the way to publish the contents. Some of the newspapers are not published regularly. Besides, there are some independent newspapers are also available across the country who operate under pressure too. The newspapers mostly come with some general information for the readers. But the readership being lower, the newspapers are unable to create much appeal to the readers. Although the newspapers publicly criticize some government policies, they are also accused of corruption. So, people have less trust in the newspapers.
Even the newspapers reporters have been penalized for their mistakes. The events of imprisonment also took place and they were tortured too. All these have blocked the media freedom, particularly for the print media outlets.
Around four radio stations are under operation in the country. They provide a good number of information and news to the listeners. They also come with some special events and shows to entertain the listeners. In fact, the radio broadcast is the leading source for the countrymen to know about any issues. Besides, the radio stations broadcast using the local language but there are some foreign language programs are also available in the radios. Majority of the radio stations are private and they come up with diversified interesting events for their audiences.
The number is one for the state-run television channel in the country while there are several other private television channels are available too. But the television broadcast is controlled strictly by the government. The contents are censored before the broadcast.
The access to the internet is available for everyone and the government does not have limited the internet access. People can explore the internet without any censorship. The government is careful about the matter and has allowed establishing cyber cafes for this purpose.