Africa

Your Excellency: A delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) visited Harare from July 11 to 14 to assess press freedom conditions in Zimbabwe during the run-up to the general elections, scheduled for next spring. The delegation, which consisted of board member Clarence Page, deputy director Joel Simon, and Africa program coordinator Yves Sorokobi, met with journalists from the independent press and held informal discussions with members of the state media. They also spoke at length with Zimbabwean human rights activists and foreign correspondents based in the country.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely concerned about your government’s refusal to lift the ban on nationwide shortwave broadcasts by Radio Veritas. On July 2, Minister of Post and Telecommunications Emma Wuor informed Radio Veritas that it was no longer allowed to broadcast on shortwave radio, leaving KISS FM and Radio Liberia International–both of which you own as part of your Liberia Communications Network–as the only stations that can air political news countrywide. Currently, Radio Veritas broadcasts on an FM frequency that only covers the capital, Monrovia.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply disturbed by a recent string of press freedom abuses in Zambia, and by your government’s increased monitoring of state-funded media. Given the hostile climate that local journalists now face, we have little confidence that they will be able to work effectively during the run-up to general elections scheduled for later this year.

The fate of a dozen journalists remains unclear. New York, August 6—The Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely concerned about the safety of Mattewos Habteab, editor-in-chief of the private Tigrigna-language MeQaleh newspaper, who sources believe is being forced to perform military work in retaliation for his critical journalism.

New York, August 3—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply troubled by South Africa’s proposed Interception and Monitoring Bill, which empowers the police, the National Defense Force, the Intelligence Agency, and the Secret Service to “establish, equip, operate and maintain monitoring centers.” If adopted, the legislation would allow the government to monitor electronic and…

Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is disturbed by the continued detention of Tamrat Zuma, former publisher and editor-in-chief of the defunct Amharic weekly Atkurot. Zuma has now been in prison for more than two months.

Harare, July 26, 2001–For more than two years, since the January 1999 arrest and torture of two journalists from the Harare weekly The Standard, the press in Zimbabwe has operated under a virtual state of siege. In April 2000, the offices of the Daily News were bombed. In January 2001, a commando team blew up…

Burton Benjamin Memorial Award During nearly four decades at The New York Times, JOSEPH LELYVELDhelped define the highest principles of American journalism. Lelyveld began at The Times as a copy boy in 1962. His distinguished reporting included years as a foreign correspondent in London, New Delhi, Hong Kong, and Johannesburg. His 1985 book, Move Your…