NEWS OF AFRICA AND FORTUNES OF [SPECIALIZED AGENCIES INCREASE]

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01314R000100010012-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 22, 2004
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: December 28, 1977
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2004/10/28 : CIA-
Specialized News S ervices' Fortunes_ F ol.Ow
By Jacqueline TrescoI .
Wal 'ng around the. small, cramped offices
people bouncing off the walls in here," says the
44-year-old Matthews,' whose scarecrow frame
f hi
i
i
i
h
0
of the~lfrican Bibliographic Center, Dan Mat
nc
s one s
gn o
s
es)
(155 pounds, 5 feet 11
h
"
-~
;I
t w chuckles, a laugh touched .with s ,7
at
And, 19781 will be the first year t
- sacrifices.
e
e
C
'
disbelief
ir~yself and my_
I will b
able to properly cloth
"
N
.
wife.
For 11 years Matthews, the center's director, Matthews is representative of one of a ball-
has been waiting for a break working without dozen specialized outlets of African news in
vacations, accumulating. a personal debt of
America and abroad. They range fTOm wily
$10,000, weathering accusations that he 'was a, audio services to glossy magazines and are now
cnv, surviving a broken first 'marriage anrt at ... _. ,. _
r.. a ... ? -,
~? v
to become the news of men, not giraffes, ana - V , V --- r'?'
.things are beginning to look nn_ ing toward ward bloody c conflic cts, makixg the snialV
w ? WASHINGTON POST
es- of A
.
group of specialized news services ously, says David
chairman of
i
more
mportant. the African Studies Center of Michi
Ji
C
mmy
arter both as a cdidt g Stt Uiv
,,anaeanaenersity.
and President has given interviews'to "When we first started, news.' diree-
two African-specialty magazines. On tors would ask, 'What's happening. in
the cover of the tors Issue of
1 Africa, a 6-year-old news-monthly pub- Africa that our listeners would be in-
?lisheel in London with a circulation of terested in?' The big guys never
123,000, a very serious Carte-'is peer- called," recalls Kramer, one of the,
ing into a relief map of Africa, his founders of the African New
chin almost resting on Angola. ' Service. Established four
years
ago,
Just as the Vietnam war gave birth it, has a weekly news digest, , which
i^_h
.to an alternative press a
decade ago
' has dumped to 450 circul
ti
,
,
a
on since
so has the Africa of ,the 1970s. Some September, and a temporarily-sus-
of the cams
eo
l
d
_-._,,_ ? ,._ .
p
p
pen
ed
an international news agency
based in Berkeley, Calif-, grew out of
letin.
Today,, as in the Vietnam war era,
the interest is high and the need for
supplemental, news exists. No longer British Broadcasting, Most are now
ererc, John v orster, Steve Biko and
Kenneth:- Kuanda -_, unfamiliar.. No
-longer, do ed Kramer and the rest
of t3.
A
e
ri
urmarlon. Within the last three
months we have had calls from `Sixty
Minutes,' NBC, The Washington Post,
The -Boston Globe, and Canadian and
salary' fora operating' expenses. Gone - Angola War, , for congressional hear;
are the extra dishwashing. or teach `., ings,: they called' Matthews' Bibli- nations that
comprise the African
"We do havea "sense"of accomplish
hi
Macnel Mozambique), was', at the blcan ntuaies Center uses . both.
United Nations, he, was deluged .with ` Habari , and the, African News Service
,interview requests.-And 'he, turned 'for their summaries and local broad-
down all except ours." cast feeds:
of the': audio . and print services but:
they also have become valuable so'ifr.
ces for.,. the major media. .Initially
the relationships w0re?mildly antag-=<
onrstic since- the alternatives were
founded to fill gaps aadreverse s t e r e o stilt?,uneven in quality.' Some of the the black, township,outside Johannes
types in' the :general every tere s old cliches of Africa are still reflected burg. They :had. made contacts; every;. news re
ti
por
ng In recent d rti wi fthu one else relied thli t
reary, :payth . tie :reglar;, .major coverage ". on-e poce 'reports the alternatives" help, ma1.9r.. media Overall their experiences give that
:_. _ .,.~ ._, ,. .. ~,fBsthand knowledge of the 53 alternatives a different perspApproved For.Release 2004/10/28 CIA-RDP88-01314R000100010012-1
the antiwar newspaper, the War Bul-
w
te South ;Axrlcan who left be-
.cause she feared her political views!
Would lead to her arrest' C
lin
Chi
d
g
e
"
n
on
o the
ditor
of Afri
,can D i-
n rec fans, a new journal.' mass an ~ :.:
years there have been increments in .curing the first days, of the` Soweto
the quality; of. reporting Pram... tl,a oats in 1976 the staff of Af
are
of
 Approved For Release 2004/10/28 : CIA-RDP88-01314R000100010012-1
Agencies Increase
"lized Specia
says David Lampel, the news director The style of the alternative news The Africa-specialty magazines hav.,
of WBLS-FM in New York City, one sour:es ranges from the dry and staid a longer history than the audio services
of the highest-rated stations in the to tte lively and passionate. but, in the last few years, have turned to
F~Ivbari has a breezy tone. Produced broader political reporting and analysis.
country. He uses both Internews and by i7 volunteers from the Biblio-
African News. "In the 44-station mar- graphic Center and the Washington Africa Report, the journal of the Afri-
ket of New York, we have to have as ' once on African Affairs, it is can American Institute and the older:
an advantage, we believe those sere- compiled from overseas radio broad of this group, has moved away from a
cast:;, the daily press. congressional cultural emphasis to a political one un-
ices. give us an edge repcrts and some firsthand reporting.
Reliability is often a question with It has many roles. It reports (and -der its latest editor, Anthony Hughes,
burgeoning news services. "We have occasionally scoops): for example, cov- Hughes, 43, is a former journalist and
had no problems with either Inter- - ering the African objections to Na- '-government press officer in Kenya and
news or African News since we went tharlet Davis as Assistant Secretary Tanzania. The latest issue contained
on the air a year and a half ago," says of :state for African Affairs In 1975, three stories on South Africa, an inter
Jim Lee, the news director of 'WBSP, . three months before the major press. t t hrewith the U South
Commissioner for
a 50,000-watt FM station in Warren- It serves as a hotline, answering hun view
ton, N.C. "What is important 19 that drects of calls from Nigerians living Namibia, reports from Botswana. and
the alternative services have not only' in the United States after a coup in Zimbabwe among its 60 pages.
reported the struggles in Ethiopia and 1975. All of the magazines available in
the Southern Sahara before anyone Though they are located in Durham, Washington - -including Africa and
else, but they place things in context. N.C., the seven-member staff of Afri- ,
Recently an activist in Namibia made can News supported by their 'Faaa- its companion magazine, Africa.Wom-
a strong statement criticizing South doz{-n stringers in Africa, has been an, and Jeune Aftique -.are still
Africa. And Associated- Press ran a able to break some. important stories. striving to bring a different point of
story describing bim as a SWAPO Very early, the service reported the view from that the major media of-
-militant, with his remarks. Internews signs of CIA-covert involvement in fer. Sometimes that effort Is not fi-
reported the same statement but Angola, the war in Western Sahara, nancially successful. rst World an
added. that it came In the wake of and the viewpoints of the Eritrean Atlanta-based black magaz ne that at-
some executions and arrests that had gue:-rillas in the Ethiopian conflict. tempts to bring "a pan-African inter
been questioned by the West Ger- 1Durham was chosen, says Tamt Hult- pretation of world events," has tern.
mans, British and the Americans." Mail, 30, who recently trav ere- 1 porarily suspended publication. .
Morocco and Algeria and reported on The -survival tactic of the - altdrna-
" is the Nixon-Kissinger tar baby still the Sahara conflict- "because the ex- tive press, as the major media covers
with us?' Well, according to the maiden penses are minimal, the rents are its once-exclusive ground more thor-
cheap and the radio reception is oughly, Is to stay ahead. Right after
issue df -Washington Intrigue, one of ills good." African News hopes to re- - the U.N. Security -Council voted for
legacies still is, that of the report of the institute their audio service next a mandatory arms embargo against
supersecret national reconnaissance of- month. . Souta Africa, most of the. daily pap-
fice em South Africa's military mignt . - ers detailed the vote and the status
which made it possible for Washington "At this stage of the liberation process of South African military power.
we have become very sensitive to the - But Steven Talbot of Irate ew ex-
to back a mandatory U.N. arms embargo piained how an economic sanction
against Pretoria The report influenced role played by the world's tdg powers in would be much more effective. Two
the formulation of Carter's presidential yaffectirca-the direction of that process. weeks later the other media began,.
revieurrnemrrraruium, PRM 4, on South -- In s sense America, your country, has exploring the feasibility,. and Impact,: In South Af.~
Africa. As_ts result, Washington Intrigue P Ued a shameful-rate in her eclat s riof the'U.S. ca "All we an investments
Is anticipate he
concludes that,thQe U.S."remains `stuck to wits our country. _ ! ? ,next c r i s i s area, or the next dipio-
the South Aft k w -'' ' M"* Hltd to Son. Dick mark, ysrE of r ]atttr
.. : '! rea Jn ptrtes rLevore,.PoY e+~rx= December. 'lowmatic our debate, and gays: T hope al the bot. others faI-
'' ~sh~rrl beoidcaFt. Doz. d. !f'17}. I ~g77. .- ___ ..,_.~ .~__. iw- :.rl~-.' -- .^ -!"-. ?. ?+ _
Approved For Release 2004/10/28 : CIA-RDP88-01314R000100010012-1