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…
New York, April 27, 2001 — The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is gravely concerned about the safety of two South African journalists who have been subpoenaed to testify against a murderous vigilante group that has threatened to kill them if they comply. In August 1996, journalist Kobus Louwrens and photographer Christo Lötter, both from…
A LONG-AWAITED REPORT ON MEDIA AND RACISM IN POST-APARTHEID South Africa was issued in August, to the relief of many who had feared it might erode constitutional protections for press freedom. Titled Faultlines, the report of the quasi-independent South African Human Rights Commission (HRC) was the end result of an investigation announced in late 1998,…
By Claudia McElroyAll over Africa, conflict continued to be the single biggest threat to journalists and to press freedom itself. Both civil and cross-border wars were effectively used as an excuse by governments (and rebel forces) to harass, intimidate, and censor the press–often in the name of “national security”–and in some cases to kill journalists…
Thabo Mbeki succeeded President Nelson Mandela following the resounding victory of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa’s second democratic election on June 2. Local journalists worried that the ANC’s victory would herald a new era of media repression. Neither Mandela nor Mbeki had ever disguised his dislike for the press, complaining that…
The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply saddened by the recent death of our colleague Chola Bright Mwape, Regional Information Co-ordinator at the Media Institute of South Africa in Windhoek. Mr. Mwape, a Zambian national and a former newspaper reporter and editor, was known and respected all over the world as a leading authority on…