Attacks on the Press 2010: South Africa
Top Developments • ANC pushes proposal to create state media tribunal to monitor, sanction press. • Anti-media rhetoric heats up, tarnishing nation’s image as press freedom leader. Key Statistic 25: Years of imprisonment for disclosing classified information, as proposed in the Protection of Information Bill. On the defensive about high crime rates and reports of…
Attacks on the Press 2010: Uganda
Top Developments • Electronic surveillance measure enacted; may chill news reporting. • Court strikes down sedition law used against critical journalists. Key Statistic 5: Journalists assaulted during clashes between security forces and members of the Buganda kingdom. Authorities harassed and obstructed journalists covering two stories that shook the nation: a fire that destroyed a historic…
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…