Directory of Research and Expertise

This thesis explores China’s ideational media influence on press freedom in Africa. Specifically, it examines the impact of China’s increasing role in shaping the ideational and normative spheres in Africa through professionalization trainings. In the context of journalists and politicians, this approach involves near all-expenses-paid trainings on Chinese norms of governance, development, information control, and media approach in China. The study systematically seeks to undertake two important tasks. First, and using Ghana as an instrumental case study, it examines the role of the ‘agency’ of the Ghanaian journalists and politicians in localizing Chinese media norms in Ghana. Second, it determines whether the trainings, and the subsequent localization of Chinese media norms, undermine press freedom in Ghana.

The focus on Ghana is particularly interesting, because it has emerged as the top recipient African country of these Chinese professionalization media trainings. Having previously earned a fine reputation within the comity of nations as a beacon of democracy and a champion for press freedom in Africa, Ghana has witnessed a precipitous decline in the enjoyment of press freedom in the last decade. This is largely due to unprecedented attacks on independent journalists and media houses by state security apparatus, state appointees, and operatives of political parties. Questions are, thus, ripe over whether the worsening fortunes of press freedom could be an indication that the Ghanaian participants are practicing aspects of Chinese authoritarian media norms and practices in Ghana.

The significance of this study subsumes under two important backdrops. The first involves the fact that the media knowledge diffusion and skills transfer taking place during such trainings come on the heels of recent studies suggesting that the notion of a uniform African acquiescence to Chinese interests with little or no African agency is misleading. To this end, the role of ‘African agency’ in bringing China’s media influence on press freedom in Africa has been hypothesized at both the journalistic and political levels. The second relates to the gaping impact-nexus gap on the Chinese media trainings and press freedom in the China-Africa scholarship, and the need to bridge the gap.

The thesis argues that China is using the trainings to, inter alia, boost its partnerships, persuade about China’s image and norms, and present its models as alternative to Western models. Evidently, while the Ghanaian participants admit to drawing on their own agency to localize non-authoritarian Chinese media, political and development norms, they are reportedly not localizing the authoritarian aspects of Chinese norms. Especially, the politicians’ lack of such localization is due mainly to expected resistance from robust democratic institutions in Ghana, not a lack of interest. The findings of this study provide rich empirical insights into the resilience of a fairly consolidated culture of democracy and press freedom in Africa, against a systematic authoritarian cultural challenge from China.

Journal articles

Beijing is investing heavily in media soft power through near all-expenses-paid media trainings for Ghanaian journalists in the name of building their journalistic capabilities. But are the trainings really about boosting the participants' professional know-hows? And is Beijing’s use of soft power during the media trainings any effective? This paper explores these questions from the perspectives of 13 Ghanaian journalists that participated in such trainings. Through elite interviews and reflexive thematic analysis, the study shows that the Chinese media trainings for the Ghanaian journalists proved to be whimsical and too superficial in depth to add any meaningful value to the participants’ professional know-hows. This paper thus argues that Beijing is mainly using the media trainings as a ploy to achieve other strategic Chinese goals than building the professional know-hows of the Ghanaian journalists. It also determines that Beijing’s use of soft power during the media trainings is deemed as helping to improve the participants’ general perception of China. These findings make original contributions to bridging the existing gaps in the China–Africa scholarship on the nature and rationales of Beijing’s media trainings for Africans, as well as the efficacy of China’s use of soft power during the professionalization media trainings.

Journal articles

While Ghana’s 1992 Constitution is argued to have essentially established watchdog journalism as an imperative feature of Ghana’s fourth republican dispensation, the independent media’s obsession with the ‘negative news sells’ mentality is equally argued to be helping sell Ghana (and Africa) short. In this context, Ghana’s former president, John Agyekum Kufuor (JAK), has emerged as a strong advocate for balanced reportage – which represents the journalistic practice involving impartial and equal attention paid to both positive and negative news – in Ghana (and Africa). Against the backdrop of China’s extensive professionalization media trainings on positive reportage for Ghanaian journalists, this study examines whether such Chinese exposures should be considered as a boost to JAK’s quest for balanced reportage in Ghana. Based on the opinions of 13 respondent Ghanaian journalists, this study shows that the overwhelming majority of them are not practicing China's positive reporting norm in Ghana. In fact, the Chinese trainings had a reverse effect on two of the respondents, who returned home from their trainings in China even more determined to do watchdog journalism. But since the few that are practicing the Chinese norm are doing so alongside (not as a replacement of) their extant practice of watchdog journalism, this study argues that the Chinese trainings may be preponderantly considered as a boost to JAK’s quest for balanced reportage in Ghana. These findings make original contributions to the scholarly gap on the impact-nexus of Beijing’s media trainings and journalistic practices; the notions and intersections of positive reporting, watchdog journalism, and balanced reportage; and understanding norm localization theory in the context of the diffusion of China's positive reporting norm in Ghana.

Papers

The aim of this research is to deliver a report detailing data on relevant statistics for the death penalty in the last five years, which can be used for AIN’s work on the death penalty leading up to, during and after the annual general meeting in April 2023. The objectives involve the following: first, to provide an overview of the status of the death penalty in AIN’s prioritized countries. More specifically, to identify key statistics and developments in the United States, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. Second, to provide an overview of the status of the death penalty in sub-Sahara African. This review shows an overall positive trajectory towards global abolition, despite some regressive developments from a small, outlier number of countries. A substantial number of countries have either entirely abolished the death penalty (six) or taken decisive steps towards abolition. The momentum is undoubtedly in sub-Sahara Africa, where three countries (Chad, Sierra Leone, and the Central African Republic) have abolished it entirely, another three (Burkina Faso, Equatorial Guinea, and Zambia) have abolished it for ordinary crimes only, and a number of others (e.g. Ghana, Gambia, Kenya, and Liberia) are taking judicial and/or legislative steps towards abolition. There has also been an encouraging increase in member states that support UNGA resolution on moratorium on executions (from 121 in 2018 to 125 in 2022), with the aim of total abolition in the future. The establishment of moratoriums on executions and/or the abolition of capital punishment for certain crimes in the US, Malaysia, Maldives, and Sri Lanka, as well as the snail-pace incremental positive amendments and developments in Iran, Saudi Arabia, and China, further give credence and more weight to Amnesty International’s assertion that a world without the death penalty is within reach.

Papers

The aim of this scoping research exercise has been to identify the possible opportunities and channels of human rights influence – within the context of Norwegian foreign and development engagements – in Amnesty International Norway’s (AIN) prioritized countries in Africa, namely, South Sudan, Tanzania and Ethiopia. The research shows that human rights promotion is an established priority in Norwegian engagements abroad and evidence of rhetoric in policy, existence of guiding principles (e.g. HRBA and UNGP), and funding for contributing projects in practice abound. Yet the apparent dearth of robust monitoring and evaluation mechanisms for implementation of the guiding principles and measuring human rights impact in the countries in question, make it difficult to conclude whether Norwegian development interventions do indeed help promote human rights in those nations. Amnesty International could be a crucial «driving force» in taking action to help resolve this implementation/impact challenge.

Articles

China is known to be an expert at playing the long game, and the big-picture view of China’s evolving foreign policy reveals a profound shift is underway that is likely to have grave consequences for human rights around the world for decades to come. Before Xi Jinping took over in late 2012, China insisted it did not wish to promote a “China model” in its diplomatic and economic relations with the outside world. At the same time, it used the principle of sovereignty to defend itself from external criticism of its repressive domestic policies. China’s diplomacy embodied the principle of non-interference. By this principle, China purported to neither export ideology nor interfere in other countries' internal affairs, in stark contrast to the efforts of other funders (such as the World Bank) to link global development aid with values such as democracy, respect for universal human rights, the rule of law, transparency and accountability. However, as China’s economy grew – and especially under President Xi – China has gradually taken a more assertive and activist posture on the international stage, where it is seeking to actively promote a new “right to development” path “with Chinese characteristics”.   

Monographs

This book examines the use of force under the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P) doctrine. Essentially, R2P placed a secondary ‘responsibility’ on the international community to respond to egregious atrocities (with force, if necessary) in situations where the sovereign states in which the atrocities were occurring were either unable or unwilling to take appropriate action. Specifically, the book discusses the authorization and application of force for humanitarian purposes in the civil wars in Libya and Syria, where the use of force was seen to apply. Use of force was applied in the Libyan conflict through a UN Security Council approved ‘no-fly zone.’ However, when it appeared even more necessary in Syria, where events culminated in another far more brutal civil war that continues to this day, no such response has being forthcoming, nor does one appear likely. This book attempts to analyze and provide an explanation for the different international responses to the two conflicts.

Monographs

This book offers a framework through which the UN Security Council may legislate to regulate the arms trade, as an alternative to the UN General Assembly consensus stricken Arms Trade Treaty process. The author illustrates why the Council would need to determine the illicit trade in arms as a threat to international peace and security. He also challenges the Council to pursue a legislative act akin to its resolutions 1373 (2001) and 1540 (2004) on countering the threat of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction respectively, to regulate the arms trade. The book is especially useful for UN policymakers, state officials, civil society organizations, and scholars interested in the global arms trade and its human cost. 

NonPeerReviewed

This thesis explores China’s ideational media influence on press freedom in Africa. Specifically, it examines the impact of China’s increasing role in shaping the ideational and normative spheres in Africa through professionalization trainings. In the context of journalists and politicians, this approach involves near all-expenses-paid trainings on Chinese norms of governance, development, information control, and media approach in China. The study systematically seeks to undertake two important tasks. First, and using Ghana as an instrumental case study, it examines the role of the ‘agency’ of the Ghanaian journalists and politicians in localizing Chinese media norms in Ghana. Second, it determines whether the trainings, and the subsequent localization of Chinese media norms, undermine press freedom in Ghana. The focus on Ghana is particularly interesting, because it has emerged as the top recipient African country of these Chinese professionalization media trainings. Having previously earned a fine reputation within the comity of nations as a beacon of democracy and a champion for press freedom in Africa, Ghana has witnessed a precipitous decline in the enjoyment of press freedom in the last decade. This is largely due to unprecedented attacks on independent journalists and media houses by state security apparatus, state appointees, and operatives of political parties. Questions are, thus, ripe over whether the worsening fortunes of press freedom could be an indication that the Ghanaian participants are practicing aspects of Chinese authoritarian media norms and practices in Ghana. The significance of this study subsumes under two important backdrops. The first involves the fact that the media knowledge diffusion and skills transfer taking place during such trainings come on the heels of recent studies suggesting that the notion of a uniform African acquiescence to Chinese interests with little or no African agency is misleading. To this end, the role of ‘African agency’ in bringing China’s media influence on press freedom in Africa has been hypothesized at both the journalistic and political levels. The second relates to the gaping impact-nexus gap on the Chinese media trainings and press freedom in the China-Africa scholarship, and the need to bridge the gap. The thesis argues that China is using the trainings to, inter alia, boost its partnerships, persuade about China’s image and norms, and present its models as alternative to Western models. Evidently, while the Ghanaian participants admit to drawing on their own agency to localize non-authoritarian Chinese media, political and development norms, they are reportedly not localizing the authoritarian aspects of Chinese norms. Especially, the politicians’ lack of such localization is due mainly to expected resistance from robust democratic institutions in Ghana, not a lack of interest. The findings of this study provide rich empirical insights into the resilience of a fairly consolidated culture of democracy and press freedom in Africa, against a systematic authoritarian cultural challenge from China.

I panel chaired the UNVEILING SOCIETIES IN FRAGMENTATION: HISTORICAL, POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC APPROACHES session at the 'Fragments' postgraduate conference, during which the following researchers presented their research papers and partook in a panel discussion:

- Jane Skelding (Institute of Historical Studies): "Decoding the Archives: Locating Marginalized Histories through Fragments of Language in the Census and Literature of the Twentieth Century".

- Dr. Tugce Yalcin (Institute of Advanced Legal Studies): "Disclosure of Information in M&A Transactions in the Light of the Theory of Contract: Comparison of the Common Law and Civil Law".

- John Duncan (institute of Commonwealth Studies): "Fragmented Subjectivities: How Neoliberalism Creates Diverse Class Subjects".

I presented a paper on the above title, which spoke to the preliminary wider arguments and conclusions in my PhD thesis. 

I gave a keynote address at this seminar and participated in a panel discussion on the structural problems and interests which impede media freedom in Ghana, and which have seen the country decline sharply from 30th to 60th position on the 2022 World Press Freedom Index.