By Jacien Carr

It was with great concern that I read about the Liberian Ministry of Information’s actions to deny the printing of “The Bi-Lingual” and “The New Broom”.  Having gained peace after years of civil strife, these actions are contrary to the advancement of civil society.  This demonstrates why Radio Free Africa is needed.

Growing up in Europe from 1974 to 1988, I was able to witness and absorb the plight of millions of Eastern Bloc Europeans living under the iron grip of Soviet inspired totalitarianism.  In fact one of my earliest memories of the consequences of this ideology was viewing programs about life in Eastern Europe that depicted empty shopping markets.  Bare shelves greeted hundreds of shoppers.  Usually, older women, all of them it appeared, dressed by the same tailor.  What a contrast to life in Italy or Switzerland.  Being from Liberia, I was astonished to realize that Europeans also lived in abject poverty.  I did realize however, that the reason for these conditions was manmade.   The citizens of Eastern Europe were subjected to third world status due to the policies of their governments.  Two of those policies were the systematic suppression of free speech and the press.  This policy reached across the Iron Curtain and touched me personally while I was living in Geneva, Switzerland.

In 1979, my family re-located from Rome, Italy, to Geneva, Switzerland.  In Geneva, one of the first purchases that my parents acquired was a large Grundig radio and record player combination that was short wave capable.   Standard routine in our household was to keep the radio on nearly twenty-four hours a day tuned to the British Broadcasting Corporation.  Those familiar with the BBC know that at the top of the hour, the station broadcasts an updated news transmission, keeping its listeners apprised of the ongoing news of the day.   In time I started to take note of a recurring event that transpired as the hourly news was being broadcasted.  As the transmission began, it was accompanied by higher than normal interference, sometimes making the broadcast incomprehensible.  I later learned that the interferences were manmade, caused by the Soviet Union.  Diplomats at the United Nations in Geneva had been voicing their displeasure vis à vis this practice by the USSR.   This deliberate attempt at the suppression of the free press and freedom of expression, being extended past the borders of Eastern Europe, paled in comparison to the attack on these institutions in countries such as Poland, Hungary or the Czech Republic.   Radio Free Europe served to counter the effects of the suppression of a free press in countries behind the Iron Curtain by transmitting uncensored news to the citizens of these countries.  I remember reading and hearing about the hope, and the will to act against the status quo, that Radio Free Europe inspired among Eastern Europeans.

Radio Free Africa has the potential to be for Africa that which Radio Free Europe was for Eastern Europe.  Radio Free Africa can inspire, educate and help to empower Africans, not only on the continent, but also those in the Diaspora to take concrete steps into becoming transformative agents.  Time is definitely not on Africa’s side; in fact, Africa is running out of time.  In a few months we will be celebrating the year 2010.  Africa will be celebrating a return to the 1970s as the next generation of dictators prepares to assume power.   We have already seen the preview of this in Niger, Gabon and Mauritania.  Guinea is ripe to continue this legacy.  This is why Radio Free Africa is so crucial at this juncture.  Radio Free Africa can reinforce and help to sustain indigenous and grass roots efforts at self determination in Africa as Radio Free Europe once did in Europe.  As history will judge, attempting to control the free press in Africa will meet the same fate as such actions did behind the Iron Curtain.

Jacien Carr currently lives in the United States and works in finance.  He is a volunteer for Radio Free Africa and can be reached at jacien.carr [at] radiofreeafrica.org