Africa

Despite recent reforms to Nigeria’s Cybercrimes Act, journalists continue to be targeted for publishing news in the public interest, with four reporters being charged under the law last month. Cybercrime laws and other regulations governing online content have been widely used to jail journalists around the world. In Nigeria, at least 29 journalists have faced…

Abuja, October 2, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Gambian authorities to drop all charges against The Voice newspaper editors, Musa Sekou Sheriff and Momodou Justice Darboe, and to repeal Section 181A of the country’s Criminal Code in line with the regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Court’s landmark judgment and recommendations from the country’s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission. “It is outrageous that President Adama…

After a month of seeing an empty television studio with the word “censored” splashed across the screen, Cameroonians are finally able to watch Équinoxe TV’s flagship Sunday politics show “Droit de Réponse” again. The privately owned station fell foul of Cameroon’s regulatory National Communication Council (NCC), which judged it to have harmed the reputations of…

Abuja, September 16, 2024—Authorities in Nigeria should discontinue criminal proceedings against journalists Haruna Mohammed Salisu and Yawale Adamu, of the privately owned WikkiTimes news site, and reform laws that criminalize the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday. “Nigerian journalists must be allowed to investigate allegations of corruption without fear of imprisonment,” said CPJ…

New York, September 12, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists urged Mali’s media regulator to reverse its suspensions of French public broadcaster TV5Monde and private television news channel La Chaîne Info (LCI), which are the most recent outlets censored in response to coverage of security issues in the country. “Reporting critically on the activities of Mali’s…

The Committee to Protect Journalists, the International Press Institute, and the Media Foundation for West Africa released a joint statement on Tuesday, September 3, calling on Nigerian authorities to ensure the body of slain journalist Onifade Emmanuel Pelumi is released to his family and that those responsible for his death are identified and held to account. …

Amid political tension in Guinea-Bissau following President Umaro Sissoco Embaló’s dissolution of parliament in December, it was only natural for radio journalist Ussumane Mané to ask the West African leader a question that was on everyone’s lips: will there be a presidential election this year? Embaló, a former army general who came to power on…

Kinshasa, August 22, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists urges the authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to ensure the safety and freedom of two journalists — Radio Tokomi Wapi reporter Martin Kasongo and Top Lomami radio reporter Michaël Tenende — after local officials in the south-central Lomami province threatened them in separate…

Zambian journalist Thomas Allan Zgambo is facing up to seven years in prison for his reporting on corruption and poor governance in the southern African nation. It is at least the third time that Zgambo has risked imprisonment for his online journalism, a growing threat for journalists in many African countries. On August 6, Zgambo was arrested on…

“He hit me with a gun butt,” Premium Times newspaper reporter Yakubu Mohammed told the Committee to Protect Journalists, recalling how he was struck by a police officer while reporting on cost-of-living protests in Nigeria’s capital of Abuja on August 1. Two other officers beat him, seized his phone, and threw him in a police…