Media and Election Violence in Eastern Africa

PCMLP has been engaged in a comparative research project on media and election violence in Eastern Africa. We have also been exploring broader questions about media regulation during heavily contested elections. We have held a workshop on this topic in December 2008 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  The workshop provided the opportunity to explore the election experiences of Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Somaliland, Tanzania and Sudan in a comparative framework. The focus was on understanding why election violence occurred after some elections, what the role of the media was in either exacerbating or resolving disputes, and what this suggests about the broader political project and the state of the media in the countries under examination.  As a result of the workshop we published the following report.
 

We have also published research on lessons for Kenya from Somaliland. This research report The Role of the Media in the Upcoming Somaliland Elections: Lessons from Kenya, draws on research conducted in Kenya by a PCMLP team along with journalists from Somaliland. The report explores issues of media policy during post-election violence. The case of Kenya, where 1,133 people were killed after the 2007 elections, is comparatively considered to distill lessons for elections in Somaliland.
 

For coverage of the report see:
The East African
IRIN