Africa

CPJ’s Impunity Index spotlights countries
where journalists are slain and killers go free

New York, March 23, 2009 -- The already murderous conditions for the press in Sri Lanka and Pakistan deteriorated further in the past year, the Committee to Protect Journalists has found in its newly updated Impunity Index, a list of countries where journalists are killed regularly and governments fail to solve the crimes. Colombia, historically one of the world’s deadliest nations for the press, improved as the rate of murders declined and prosecutors won important recent convictions.

New York, March 20, 2009--Ivorian authorities on Thursday abruptly jailed a journalist who was scheduled to appear in court next week on libel charges related to a column critical of the government, according to local journalists and press reports. The imprisonment appeared to violate the 2004 Ivorian press law, which decriminalized press offenses and banned pretrial detention of journalists.

New York, March 18, 2009--A Burundian online journalist jailed since last September was acquitted today, according to local journalists. In a separate case on Tuesday, however, authorities detained two journalists covering the activities of a former CPJ Press Freedom Award winner, according to the same sources. 

New York, March 13, 2009--The Zimbabwean attorney general's office should halt a baseless criminal investigation into human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Reporters who dig up carefully buried facts about those in power can easily find themselves in danger. In countries where a tradition of watchdog journalism has not yet taken hold, the risks of practicing investigative reporting can be real and physical for those reporters that take it on.

The staff at CPJ was relieved to hear that former CPJ Press Freedom Award winner Alexis Sinduhije was released from prison today. The former radio station director and veteran Burundian journalist was acquitted by a Bujumbura court after serving four months of a two and a half year jail sentence for "insulting the president." A three-judge panel acquitted Sindhujie on Wednesday after ruling that the charges against him were unsubstantiated. 

About two weeks ago, traditional authorities in the mountain kingdom of Swaziland slapped the nation's most outspoken political columnist, Mfomfo Nkambule, with a fine--to be paid in cows--for criticism of the administration of King Mswati III, Africa's last absolute ruler. 

New York, March 10, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Saturday's ransacking of a TV and radio broadcaster by security forces in the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar. The raid was part of ongoing government efforts to censor independent media coverage of political unrest, stemming from a bitter power struggle between opposition leader Andry Rajoelina and President Marc Ravalomanana. 

Journalists in Ethiopia informed CPJ over the weekend that our Web site, which was blocked to Internet users in the capital, Addis Ababa, since August, was accessible again.