With presidential elections scheduled for April 12, 2003, Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, who survived another impeachment vote in September, must boost his own popularity while maintaining peace in this restive nation, where ethnic and religious violence has left thousands dead in recent years. A retired army general, Obasanjo was elected in May 1999 elections that…
Shortly after U.S. president George W. Bush arrived in South Korea’s capital, Seoul, in February 2002 for a state visit, the North Korean state news agency, KCNA, reported a miracle: that a cloud in the shape of a Kimjongilia, the flower named after the country’s leader, Kim Jong Il, had appeared over North Korea. “Even…
Journalists in Papua New Guinea, who had faced harassment and violence during the administration of former prime minister Mekere Morauta, viewed the August election of Sir Michael Somare, a former journalist, positively. Nevertheless, continued violence reminded observers how far the country is from reaching political and social stability.
Although Rwandan president Paul Kagame has been in power for nine years, in July, he canceled elections scheduled for 2003 because his government remains “in a transition phase.” Despite almost a decade of rule, the Kagame administration has yet to draft a constitution that safeguards even basic freedoms.
In early August, President Abdoulaye Wade offered a stunning apology to foreign donors who had hurriedly assisted the West African desert nation with US$23 million in emergency famine aid. The president had personally appealed for the money, but then rejected it and charged that the Senegalese media had misreported conditions in the drought-stricken countryside. After…
With sierra Leoneans struggling to safeguard a fragile peace after 10 years of civil war, the Independent Media Commission (IMC) moved to fulfill its mandate. The IMC, which the government established in 2001 and is staffed by mostly government appointees and a few media personalities, grants publication and broadcast licenses, monitors government-media relations, enforces a…
Since the 1991 overthrow of Maj. Gen. Mohammed Siad Barre by forces loyal to warlord Mohammed Farah Aideed, historic clan rivals have threatened the unity of this country, once known for practicing multiparty democracy while military juntas and civilian despots controlled most other African countries. In the face of such chaos, the media, which had…
On September 27, in a landmark decision for press freedom in South Africa, a Johannesburg court dismissed a defamation lawsuit filed by Minister of Housing Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele against the independent daily Mail & Guardian and its former editor Phillip van Niekerk. Van Niekerk and the Mail & Guardian had been sued over the paper’s December…
Like many of its East African neighbors,Tanzania has been overwhelmed by the proliferation of pornographic tabloids. Since 1992, when the advent of multiparty politics fostered media liberalization, the number of privately owned newspapers has steadily increased to about 400.
The Togolese government attempted to create a veneer of openness and democracy by finally holding twice-postponed legislative elections, while President Gnassingbé Eyadéma and his ruling Rassemblement du Peuple Togolais (Rally of the Togolese People, or RPT) increasingly harassed the private press. Authorities’ routine censorship of private publications, imprisonment of reporters, and attempts to impose new…