Africa

Abuja, May 21, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Liberian authorities to swiftly investigate the May 5 raid on Smile FM by a dozen armed men who beat a member of staff and occupied the premises until police sealed it off and stopped broadcasts.  “Liberian authorities must hold to account those who attacked Smile…

Nairobi, May 16, 2025—Journalist Ahmed Awga has been in prison for over three weeks for interviewing a man who said his 16-year-old son Shafi’i Abdikarim Ali died following a police beating — one of at least seven journalists arrested in Ethiopia in the last month as the government tightens the screws on the media. After…

Dakar, May 15, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Nigerien authorities to swiftly and unconditionally release journalists Hamid Mahmoud, Massaouda Jaharou, and Mahaman Sani, with the privately owned Sahara FM radio station, after they were arrested for the second time in four days on May 10 for broadcasting information about the country’s military cooperation…

Kampala, Uganda, May 15, 2025 – Somali security personnel have arrested, assaulted, or harassed at least 41 private-media journalists since mid-March, in what local press rights groups have called a “painful experience” and an “alarming escalation” in attacks on the media. Most of these press freedom violations were connected to coverage of national security issues,…

Dakar, May 7, 2025— Senegalese authorities should end the persecution of journalist René Capain Bassène, whose lifetime prison sentence was upheld by the Senegal Supreme Court in a May 2 decision, said the Committee to Protect Journalists on Wednesday. “It is deeply worrying that René Capain Bassène’s life sentence has been upheld despite all the flaws in the investigation that led to his imprisonment and the documented…

Nairobi, April 22, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by Ethiopian police raids on the privately owned news outlet Addis Standard’s office and an employee’s home, their confiscation of electronic devices, and detention of three managers for several hours. “The Addis Standard raids are the latest moves in the Ethiopian government’s campaign to silence…

Kinshasa, April 21, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the mistreatment of Congolese journalist Émérite Amisi Musada, who was abducted by men in civilian clothes on April 15 after being threatened over his reporting on the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, and calls for authorities to hold those responsible to account. Four…

On his 100th day in office, the Committee to Protect Journalists urged Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama to ensure swift and conclusive investigations into cases of attacks against the press, to reform laws that criminalize journalism, and to protect journalists’ privacy. In its April 17 letter, CPJ requested Mahama to take steps to deliver justice…

Dakar, April 16, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Senegalese authorities to stop the legal harassment of journalists and to deliver on President Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar Faye’s promise to decriminalize press offenses. A Dakar court judge charged Zik Fm editor-in-chief Simon Pierre Faye with spreading false news on April 14 and released him under judicial control. On the same…

Dakar, April 15, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Malian authorities to immediately release journalist Alfousseini Togo after he was arrested and detained April 9 on charges of undermining the state. “Alfousseini Togo’s arrest and detention for criticizing the judiciary sends a chilling signal to the entire Malian press, which is already suffering under the threat of government…