Angola’s rulers remained powerless to remedy longstanding woes such as appalling child mortality and rampant corruption, but government troops meddled in civil wars in the two Congos and carried out bloody forays into Zambia, allegedly in search of fighters from the rebel UNITA organization. As the country’s basic social indicators sink ever lower on the…
In March, President Mathieu Kerekou won a second term in office by a landslide amid allegations of fraud from the opposition. Press coverage of the candidates became a major issue in the months preceding the vote. In an early January television address, Timothé Adanlin, head of the High Authority for Audio-Visual Communications (HAAC), cautioned reporters…
Botswana is generally considered a model of peace and stability in southern Africa, and its press, though relatively small, is vibrant and outspoken. Relations between the government and the press were strained this past year, however, as officials tried to influence editorial policy and cooperated less with independent journalists.
The people of Burkina Faso have grown used to President Blaise Compaoré’s broken promises to respect the law. So on March 30, after the president opened the “National Day of Forgiveness” with an extraordinary apology for all crimes committed by his government, hundreds of people took to the streets to demand justice, not apologies.
On April 18, troops loyal to President Pierre Buyoya, a member of the Tutsi ethnic group, dislodged hardline Tutsi soldiers calling themselves the Patriotic Youth Front from Radio Burundi. In an act reminiscent of African coups during the 1970s and 1980s, the rebels had occupied the station and aired a statement announcing Buyoya’s overthrow.
Compared to previous years, the government of President Paul Biya seemed less keen to abuse the local press in 2001. In February, officials scrapped the value-added tax on imported media equipment and multimedia goods and services. Two months later, in June, the state television and radio network RTC allowed the BBC World Service to broadcast…
President Ange-Félix Patassé spent much of the year cracking down on coup plotters as the media, clustered in the capital, Bangui, struggled to cope with harsh economic realities and a breakdown in the rule of law. In December 2000, President Patassé warned local journalists their “leisure time” was over. On February 4, 2001, police arrested…
President Idriss Deby began the year with bad news. On January 2, the rebel Movement for Democracy and Justice (MDJT) announced that it had killed the head of Deby’s security team, General Kerim Nassour, and his aide, Colonel Fadoul Allamine. The next day, Deby was heard on state radio pleading with the MDJT to end…
Mediators from the Organization of African Unity (OAU) tried to broker a peace plan for the three-island Islamic republic starting in January, after members of the self-styled parliament of the breakaway island of Anjouan asked Colonel Said Abeid, the island’s military leader, to relinquish power. Anxious to prevent bloodletting, OAU mediators brokered a unity agreement…