Eritrea Three years after a brutal crackdown in which the government shuttered independent media outlets and detained large numbers of critics, Eritrea remained the leading jailer of journalists in Africa. Seventeen journalists were still in prison at the end of 2004, many held incommunicado in secret jails, according to CPJ research.
Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema has ruled this small, oil-rich central African country with an iron grip since 1979, when he overthrew his uncle in a coup and had him executed. With one of the worst human rights records on the continent, Equatorial Guinea is also one of the few African countries to have…
Ethiopia In the run-up to 2005 elections, the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front came under increasing criticism from local journalists and international media organizations for its antagonism toward the country’s private press. Authorities continued to imprison journalists for their reporting and to intimidate others into silence on sensitive issues, such as government infighting and…
Gabon President Omar Bongo, in office for 37 years, maintained a solid grip on power in this oil-rich Central African nation, where opposition movements are weak and the press is under bureaucratic assault. In 2004, the National Communications Council (CNC), a government-controlled media regulatory body, continued to censor private media outlets, provoking protests from local…
The Gambia The December murder of veteran journalist and press freedom activist Deyda Hydara fueled mounting fears among journalists and punctuated a year marked by arson attacks, threats, and repressive legislation aimed at the independent media in this tiny West African country. President Yahya Jammeh and his ruling Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC)…
Ivory Coast Although legislation passed at the end of 2004 eliminated criminal penalties for most press offenses, journalists in Ivory Coast face much more immediate and dangerous threats, including harassment and violence, amid the political tension and uncertainty that have engulfed the country since civil war began in 2002. Serious attacks on the press have…
Kenya The government of President Mwai Kibaki, whose December 2002 election ended 24 years of rule by the Kenya African National Union (KANU) party, struggled in 2004 to keep its election promises of ending corruption and boosting the economy. It failed to meet deadlines for adopting a new constitution, which Kibaki’s National Rainbow Coalition (NARC)…
Liberia Conditions for the Liberian press have greatly improved since President Charles Taylor stepped down and accepted exile in Nigeria in August 2003 amid a bloody rebellion. Taylor’s departure paved the way for peace accords between the main rebel groups and the government, bringing relative stability to the country. However, years of civil conflict and…
Mozambique Mozambique’s press has flourished since a devastating 16-year civil war ended in 1992. However, journalists are still haunted by the 2000 murder of Carlos Cardoso, who was killed for his aggressive investigative reporting on a 1996 corruption scandal involving the state-controlled Commercial Bank of Mozambique (BCM). Although those who carried out the murder were…
Nigeria A year after President Olusegun Obasanjo was re-elected to a second term, this oil-rich West African country continued to struggle with widespread corruption and civil conflict. Despite being Africa’s largest oil producer, more than three-quarters of Nigeria’s 130 million people live in poverty. While press freedom has improved since the presidential election of 1999…