Nairobi — Countries whose leaders have refused to relinquish power have the worst press freedom. Such leaders had created a difficult environment for journalists, thus stifling the free flow of information, the International Press Institute (IPI) director, Mr David Dadge, told the Pan Africa Media Conference on Friday.

"This has had a disastrous impact on press freedom not only on the continent, but also the world," he said. Quoting the latest IPI statistics on press freedom, Mr Dadge said there was urgent need for a reversal of this trend.

The countries he cited include North Korea, which has been ranked number 196 in terms of repression of media freedom. In Africa, the states identified include Burkina Faso (86), Chad (165), Zimbabwe (186) and Eritrea (190).

"From the statistics, it is now clear that there's a correlation between poor leadership of a country and press freedom," said Mr Dadge during the media talks, which are part of celebrations to mark the Nation Media Group's golden jubilee. He added: "It is high time these leaders cultivated some sense of democracy as this will ultimately lead to the development of their nations."

Mr Dadge's comments elicited sharp reactions, with one panellist disagreeing with his analysis. The chief executive officer of Uganda's New Vision newspaper, Mr Robert Kabushenga, said the issue was much "broader and bigger" than was being portrayed in the presentation.

"Press freedom issues go far much beyond the quarrels between the state and the media... it also revolves around the financial might of a media house. Those with a huge financial base cannot easily be intimidated. They can withstand oppression," Mr Kabushenga said.

However, the other panellists, among them Mr Trevor Ncube, the publisher of South Africa-based Mail and Guardian and Zimbabwe Independent newspapers; Mr David Makali, editor of Expression Today; and Dr Mesan Mawugbe of Ghana's Centre for Media Analysis, thought otherwise.

Mr Ncube concurred with the argument that African states that still had "strong men" were poor at media freedom. "The leaders see the media as a threat ...this should not be the case. These leaders should view us as partners in development and not their enemies," he said.

Mr Ncube, however, asked journalists on the continent not to give up hope, saying, politicians would never give them the freedom they desired on a silver platter. "You have to fight for it," he urged.