SOLDIERS UNDER THE COMMAND OF ROBERT GUEI, the retired general who seized power from an elected government on Christmas Eve, 1999, terrorized Côte d’Ivoire during their 10 months in power. As part of a general pattern of human rights abuses, they raided newsrooms at will, seized reporters’ equipment, banned news organizations, and forced journalists to…
EVEN AS KENYAN POLITICS WERE DOMINATED BY CALLS for constitutional and legal reform, the government introduced restrictive legislation governing the press. In May, the government of President Daniel arap Moi proposed an amendment to the Books and Newspapers Act that would have required new publications to post a bond of one million shillings (US$13,459) as…
ALTHOUGH LESOTHO’S CONSTITUTION GUARANTEES FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, it also provides for the protection of the “reputations, rights, and freedoms” of individuals. Criminal defamation statues reamin on the books, making independent journalism a difficult and expensive career. Throughout the year, Lesotho struggled to cope with the economic impact of large-scale retrenchments in the South African mining…
THREE YEARS SINCE HIS NATIONAL PATRIOTIC PARTY (NPP) came to power after multiparty elections ended a brutal, eight-year civil war, Liberian president Charles Taylor has become one of Africa’s fiercest enemies of the press. On March 15, for example, Taylor’s government shut down the independent station Star Radio and suspended the Catholic Church-owned Radio Veritas.…
OPPOSITION LEADERS CONTINUED TO CHALLENGE THE JUNE 1999 ELECTION results, which saw President Bakili Muluzi elected to a second five-year term. The opposition’s claims of election fraud were bolstered in March, when the British anticensorship group ARTICLE 19 released a report claiming that the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) had set up two disinformation teams…
ALTHOUGH MOZAMBIQUE IS NOT KNOWN FOR VICIOUS ATTACKS on press freedom, the cold-blooded execution of editor Carlos Cardoso on November 22 came as no surprise to his colleagues and friends. Cardoso was known for his open criticism of political leaders. Shortly before his death, Cardoso’s fax newsletter, Metical, aggressively covered financial scandals, anti-government demonstrations, and…
NAMIBIA, REGARDED AS A MODEL OF DEMOCRACY, peace, and stability in southern Africa over the past decade, celebrated its 10th anniversary of independence last year, along with the inauguration of President Sam Nujoma to an unprecedented third term in office. The celebrations were marred, however, by the country’s involvement in several armed conflicts and by…
NIGER JOURNALISTS WORKED IN RELATIVE CALM during President Mamadou Tandja’s first year in office. After Tandja’s electoral victory in December 1999, a semblance of democratic government returned and flows of much-needed foreign aid resumed. Meanwhile, prospects for independent journalism seemed bright in May, when the country’s media ombudsman praised “the good health” of the press…
PRESIDENT OLUSEGUN OBASANJO HAS REPEATEDLY PRAISED NIGERIAN JOURNALISTS for their role in bringing down successive military dictators, but Nigeria’s return to democracy has not relieved journalists of legal restrictions or of the hostility they face from the political class. Like much of the country, the press was caught up in an often-turbulent national debate last…
IN LATE 1999, THE MAIN PARTIES TO THE INTERMITTENT ETHNIC CIVIL WAR in this oil-rich country signed peace agreements that seemed reasonably durable at the end of 2000. Yet President Denis Sassou-Nguesso’s government, which is largely controlled by the northern Mbochi tribe, continued to repress political dissent. The Fundamental Act of 1997, which replaced a…