Attacks on the Press 2010: Zimbabwe
Top Developments • Press makes incremental gains as five private publication licenses are granted. • Police, ZANU-PF loyalists harass, assault independent journalists. Key Statistic 0: Broadcast licenses issued to private outlets since 2001. Regulators granted five private publishing licenses, the first in seven years, opening a window for press freedom in this long-oppressed nation. But…
Attacks on the Press 2010: Africa Developments
ATTACKS ON THE PRESS: 2010 • Main Index AFRICA Regional Analysis: • Across Continent, Governments Criminalize Investigative Reporting Country Summaries • Angola • Cameroon • Democratic Republic of Congo • Ethiopia • Nigeria • Rwanda • Somalia • South Africa • Uganda • Zimbabwe • Other nations BOTSWANA In August, a group of 32 media…
As Uganda election nears, fear among reporters
As Ugandan journalists prepare to cover presidential elections on February 18 amid political tensions and security concerns, uncertainty and fear are on the minds of reporters. That’s particularly so after a year in which 52 press freedom abuses–ranging from physical and verbal intimidation to state censorship and murder–were recorded, according reports by Ugandan press freedom…
Ivory Coast using media regulation to censor critics
New York, February 10, 2011–Incumbent Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo has moved to silence critical media under the guise of media regulation, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today, following a week in which Gbagbo’s administration tightened control over the official print media regulatory agency and ordered United Nations-sponsored radio network ONUCI FM off the air.
In Rwanda, journalists given 17 and 7 years in prison
New York, February 4, 2011–Harsh prison sentences given to two journalists today under Rwanda’s vague and sweeping laws against “genocide ideology” and “divisionism” will have a chilling effect on the Rwandan press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
Mauritius no heaven for news media
American author Mark Twain once quoted a Mauritian as saying that heaven was copied after this Indian Ocean island paradise. Mauritius is cited today as one of the few havens of press freedom in Africa, but for Raj Meetarbhan, left, editor-in-chief of the island’s largest newspaper L’Express, the country is fast losing its glow.Meetarbhan was…
Malawi amendment bans news ‘not in public interest’
New York, February 1, 2011–An amendment to Malawi’s penal code, which became law last week, allows the government to ban any publication deemed contrary to public interest for an unspecified period of time, institutionalizing political censorship of the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On January 26, President Bingu wa Mutharika signed into law an…
In Gabon, faux news draws real censorship
Last week, Gabon’s government-controlled National Communications Council ordered the TV station of opposition leader André Mba Obame off the air for a period of three months. The ruling is without appeal and, typically, this is how authorities in this oil-rich equatorial African state silence critical news outlets. Except that, this time, the “reporting” for which the…
With abysmal press freedom record, Obiang takes AU chair
The African Union announced on Sunday that the president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang, will become the new chairman in the union’s yearly rotating leadership. The first debate Obiang (at left) presided over at the two-day AU conference that ends today in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, concerned “shared values”–highlighting issues of democracy and good governance. Representing…