Obama tells Africa forum ‘no reason’ for press restriction
One out of 10 delegates participating this week in U.S. President Barack Obama’s Young African Leaders Forum was a journalist. The forum, a U.S. initiative meant to spark discussions on the future of Africa in a year when 17 countries on the continent are celebrating 50 years of nationhood, did not overlook freedom of the press, as I witnessed in…
Eritrean official says jailed journalists were security threat
Since a week after September 11, 2001, when the government of Eritrea threw into secret prisons journalists from its once-vibrant private press, the only certainty it has offered about the fate of the prisoners has been ambiguity. Over the years, officials have offered various explanations for the arrests—from nebulous anti-state conspiracies involving foreign intelligence to press law violations. They have…
Senegalese press growing against all odds
Fifty years after independence, the profession of journalism seems to have retained its prestige with the general public in Senegal. The Senegalese press is considered one of the most vibrant in Francophone Africa. It benefits from the country’s extensive democratic experience and the existence of a journalism school with a good reputation. Yet, because of the relatively unfavorable economic…
Why governments don’t need RIM to crack the BlackBerry
The United Arab Emirates’ Telecommunications Regulation Authority (TRA) announced on Sunday that it would be suspending BlackBerry “messenger, e-mail and Web-browsing services” in the country from October 11, until these “applications were in full compliance with UAE regulations.” Given the popularity of the BlackBerry platform in the country (an estimated 500,000 users from a population of 4.5 million) one…
Attacks on the rise in India’s Orissa state
Everything, it seems, is growing in India. Bucking global trends, India’s media are expanding rapidly, reaching into the hinterlands following a wave of development and growing literacy. Industrial development is expanding, with explosive growth of mining and natural resource extraction. In Orissa state, historically poor and restive, these two trends are colliding, producing a spike in media…
In Polenghi case, autopsy shared but more needed
Two days before Italian photographer Fabio Polenghi was fatally shot while covering widespread civil unrest in the streets of Bangkok, he posted a short message to his Facebook page: “Every day is a gift, so do your best,” he wrote in a message made more poignant by his death on May 19. More than two months…
Chad’s vibrant press shook off chains of the state
When Chad proclaimed independence on August 11, 1960, I was still attending primary school and had never heard of journalism. I listened only to music on the radio. But there was euphoria everywhere in Sarh, south of Chad where I lived, and we sang and danced to the frenzied rhythm of “independence tcha tcha tcha”…
In Italy, vote postponed on Berlusconi’s ‘gag law’
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is leaving for vacation in a very bad mood. On Thursday, the House of Deputies, although dominated by Berlusconi’s center-right coalition, decided to postpone until September its vote on a wiretap bill that had been considered a bellwether by a government wracked by internecine wars and confronted with ominous poll…