Bartamaha: Journalists from four capitals tell us more about how their media is looking at the World Cup. Listen to what’s happening in Abuja, Mogadishu, Freetown and Juba.

RfI correspondent Ben Shemang in Nigeria’s capital Abuja says that the football World Cup is indeed dominating the news. Is it a surprise when the nation has a national team qualified? Listeners keep calling up programmes devoted to the tournament where he says “every soccer fan becomes a coach”. Nigeria pooled together its TV stations to broadcast the matches at the same time and have common programmes dedicated to the World Cup.

The situation is quite different in Somalia, Mustafa Haji Abdinur in Mogadishu says that the Islamist insurgents have warned the population against watching the football games in South Africa. As a result, the media is giving minimum coverage to the World Cup to avoid putting itself in danger. Soccer fans that usually went to cinemas to watch the matches now prefer to watch the game at home and mute their televisions.

In Sierra Leone’s Freetown, Maynard Cox-George says that the World Cup closely followed by the media. But stays in the back pages of the newspapers, current affairs still keeps its stronghold on the front page. The excitement peaks when an African team is playing with the hope that one of them will make it to the finales.

In South Sudan’s capital Juba, the World Cup is drawing all the attention. Joe Vieira says that people usually go to hotels and bars to watch the game together. There are a few special programmes on radio stations. And here too, enthusiasm soars when an African team is on the pitch.

Source: Rfi

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