High-tech censorship on the rise in East Africa
Ethiopia has always been a country at the cutting edge of Internet censorship in Africa. In the wake of violence after the 2005 elections, when other states were only beginning to recognize the potential for online reporters to bypass traditional pressures, Meles Zenawi’s regime was already blocking major news sites and blog hosts such as…
What to do if Google warns of state-sponsored attack
Some journalists continue to receive the warning from Google about state-sponsored attacks that we mentioned last week. The message appears on top of logged-in services like Gmail. Occasionally it will disappear for a few hours and then reappear, but there is no way to remove it.
Video: Journalists in exile
Four East African journalists who were forced to flee their countries tell about their experiences, difficulties, and hopes for the future. (3:43)Read CPJ’s report, “Journalists in exile: Crisis in East Africa,” for more information about journalists forced to go into exile.
For exiled Eritreans in Sudan, fear greater than most
With the launch of CPJ’s most recent exile report, I will have worked exactly three years for our Journalist Assistance program. More than 500 cases later, I have helped journalists who have gone into hiding or exile to escape threats; those in need of medicine and other support while in prison, and journalists injured after…
US senator condemns Ethiopia’s persecution of the press
On Wednesday, the same day the White House announced a strategic plan committing the United States to elevating its efforts in “challenging leaders whose actions threaten the credibility of democratic processes” in sub-Saharan Africa, a senior member of the U.S. Congress challenged the erosion of press freedom in a key U.S. strategic partner in the…
Spreading the security message
Video streaming by UstreamOn the frontlines of global reporting, knowledge is safety. CPJ’s event series to promote our new Journalist Security Guide continued Wednesday in Washington, D.C. where we teamed up with Internews for a panel discussion on journalist security on-site and online.
Mission Journal: Somaliland’s press harassed, disappointed
“I’m free but I don’t feel free,” said Mohamed Abdi Urad, chief editor of Yool, a critical weekly published in the semi-autonomous republic of Somaliland. Mohamed had just been released on May 22 after a week in detention at Hargeisa Central Police Station. His crime? “I have no idea,” he said. Mohamed had attempted to…
Amid assaults on press, Uganda police promise reforms
Joseph Mutebi, a photojournalist for the popular vernacular state-owned daily Bukedde, spent his afternoon trying to file a complaint with the police in the capital, Kampala. “First they told me the officer who assaulted me was based at another station, so I went there and now they are telling me he is based at the…
Defining role of the press in genocide prevention
Talking about genocide prevention in the shadow of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camps brings an intense and unique gravity to the discussions. The academic presentations cannot extract themselves from the looming presence of the barbed wires and grim towers surrounding the Nazis’ most infamous death factory.
South Africans clash on Twitter over #Zumaspear
South African journalist and arts critic Charl Blignaut made what turned out to be an excellent prediction. “Of all the work on show, it’s this depiction of the president that will set the most tongues wagging and most likely generate some howls of disapproval,” he wrote on May 13 in a review of an art…