Africa

  
Newly elected Mozambican president Daniel Chapo looks on at the Mozambique-China cultural center during an inter-religious service of repentance and reconciliation in Maputo, Mozambique, January 16, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer

CPJ urges Mozambican president to uphold media freedom

In a letter, the Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Mozambique’s President Daniel Francisco Chapo to take decisive steps to ensure that the media can operate without fear of reprisal. The letter urges Chapo, who was inaugurated January 2025 following a disputed election last year, to act swiftly in providing the whereabouts of  two missing journalists—Ibraimo Mbaruco, who…

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Troubling crackdown on Ugandan journalists ahead of 2026 elections

Kampala, Uganda, March 27, 2025—After two weeks of attacks by masked anti-terrorism agents, police, and soldiers on Ugandan journalists covering an upcoming by-election, voting day proved even worse — forcing three major media houses to pull their reporters from the day’s top story. “We have taken the difficult decision to temporarily withdraw our @Daily Monitor…

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Blessed Mhlanga

Zimbabwe seeks to stifle political debate with jail, threats, legislation

Lusaka, March 27, 2025—“I have learnt that free speech, free talk, is not free,” Zimbabwean journalist Blessed Mhlanga wrote in a letter from prison, which was made public on February 28, his fourth day behind bars. Mhlanga, who works with the privately owned broadcaster Heart and Soul TV, was arrested on February 24 and charged with…

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Akwasi Agyei Annim making a video of the mining site, shortly before the attack. Source- Akwasi Agyei Annim

Ghanaian journalists attacked by military, illegal miners in separate incidents

Abuja, March 24, 2025–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Ghanaian authorities to investigate and hold accountable military officers and suspected illegal miners accused of attacking a total of five journalists in separate incidents. “It is concerning that military officers accused of attacking journalists have not been held to account,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa regional…

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Screenshots from CCTV footage showing police arriving to Risaala Media Corporation’s offices in Mogadishu. (Screenshot: Risaala Media Corporation)

Somali journalist killed in Al-Shabaab bombing, at least 22 others arrested for reporting attack

Nairobi, March 20, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Somali authorities to investigate the killing of journalist Mohamed Abukar Dabashe in a March 18 bombing by the militant group Al Shabaab in the capital Mogadishu and allow journalists to do their jobs without fear of reprisal. “Mohamed Abukar Dabashe’s death is devastating. Unfortunately, he…

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Benin Web Tv director Paul Arnaud Deguenon

Bénin Web TV suspended for reporting on media regulator’s budget

Dakar, March 19, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Benin’s regulatory High Authority for Audiovisual and Communication (HAAC) to reverse its suspension of the privately owned news site Bénin Web TV for reporting on alleged inconsistencies in the media regulator’s budget. In its March 12 decision, the HAAC also withdrew Benin Web TV director…

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Ugandan journalist Ibrahim Miracle is treated at St. Francis Hospital Nsambya in the capital, Kampala, on February 26 after two security officers assaulted him while he was reporting. (Photo: Courtesy of Livingstone Matovu)

Ugandan anti-terrorism officers brutally assault journalist

Kampala, Uganda, March 4, 2025—Two masked officers with Uganda’s security agency Joint Anti-Terrorist Task Force (JAT) assaulted Ibrahim Miracle, a reporter for Christian broadcaster Top TV, while he was reporting in the capital, Kampala, on February 26. The journalist told CPJ that the attack left him hospitalized with severe injuries. “Security officers brutally attacked journalist…

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Journalist Blessed Mhlanga (left) in the capital's Harare Magistrates Court with his lawyer Chris Mhike (right) on February 25.

Zimbabwean journalist Blessed Mhlanga jailed over interviews with war veteran

Lusaka, February 26, 2025—CPJ calls on Zimbabwean authorities to free broadcast journalist Blessed Mhlanga, who has been in detention since February 24 on charges of incitement in connection to his critical interviews with a war veteran.  “It is absolutely shameful that Blessed Mhlanga has been thrown behind bars simply because he gave voice to a…

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Augustin Ndongo and Joseph Abena Abena

2 Cameroonian journalists attacked while reporting on businessman praised by president

Dakar, February 21, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the Cameroonian authorities to investigate and hold accountable those who attacked Equinoxe TV journalists Joseph Abena Abena and Augustin Ndongo while they were reporting in a village in Cameroon’s South Region on February 13. “The attack on Joseph Abena Abena and Augustin Ndongo is yet…

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At least 5 Ghanaian journalists attacked covering Ashanti elections 

Abuja, February 20, 2025—Ghanaian authorities must swiftly investigate February 11’s attack on five journalists covering Council of State elections in the southern Ashanti Region and ensure the press can do their jobs without fear of reprisal, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday. “Journalists play a critical democratic role in reporting on elections, yet this duty to inform is…

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