Djibouti - Media

From the city of Djibouti, telephone connections are available by satellite to Europe and the West and by land line to the main cities and towns of the interior; there were 8,000 mainline telephones and 203 cellular phones in use throughout the country in 1997.

All media are government controlled. In 1983, Djibouti inaugurated a powerful state-owned AM radio transmitting station, built with French and FRG funds. A television service was first introduced in 1967. Both are state run and broadcast in French, Afar, Somali, and Arabic. As of 1999, there were 1 AM and 2 FM radio stations and 1 television station. In 1997, there were 77 radios and 37 television sets per 1,000 population. Internet Access was not easily available, with one Internet Service Provider serving 1,000 users in 2000.

Djibouti has one weekly newspaper, the government-owned La Nation de Djibouti, which had a circulation of 4,300 in 2000.

The Constitution provides for freedom of speech and the press, and the government is said to generally uphold these rights. Although the government owns the electronic media and the principal newspaper, there are several opposition-run weeklies and monthlies that operate freely.