A year later, impunity in attacks on Senegalese media
A year ago last week in Senegal, two reporters covering a soccer match were assaulted with tasers, handcuffed, and abused by police officers after the reporters refused to halt a post-game interview at Léopold Sédar Senghor Stadium in the capital, Dakar. A year on, Senegalese law enforcement has fallen short in bringing to account those…
In Ethiopia, prime minister’s words, actions not in step
This week, in an exclusive interview with the Financial Times, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi suggested that the press in his country freely expresses dissent. In fact, that is hardly the case. The Horn of Africa nation remains one of the world’s worst backsliders of press freedom.
In Ugandan courts, important press battles
In Uganda last week, four journalists from the leading daily Monitor filed notice that they would challenge the constitutionality of the criminal libel laws before the Supreme Court, the country’s highest court, according to the newspaper’s lawyer, James Nangwala.
My incomplete mission: From the Gambia to the States
My intention to remain in my home country, to use my pen to correct injustice, and to champion press freedom was aborted by security threats that forced me and my family into exile. I left behind my beloved country and editorial desk in the hands of perpetrators.
A Gambian journalist remembers torture in detention
The unlawful detention of seven Gambian journalists since last Monday is serious cause for concern. These respected journalists were detained at the National Intelligence Agency headquarters in Banjul for “interrogation.” They have been denied access by legal representation, family members, friends, or colleagues. On Thursday, they were charged with sedition for criticizing President Yahya Jammeh’s…
Gambia has ‘no stake’ in Hydara murder
Last week, President Yahya Jammeh, at left, discussed the unsolved 2004 murder case of editor Deyda Hydara in an interview on “One on One,” a weekly program on The Gambia Radio and Television Service. The government “has for long been accused by the international community and so-called human rights organisations for the murder of Deyda Hydara,…
Somali journalists leave profession in fear as another dies
Somali journalists held an emotional press conference in Mogadishu today at the Sahafi Hotel after Sunday’s fatal shooting of the former director of Shabelle Media Network. (Sahafi means “journalist” in Arabic.) Roughly 15 journalists from different news outlets announced they were suspending their work because of security concerns. “We can no longer operate independently and…
Good discussions in Bonn; murder in Mogadishu
Journalism conferences discussing global trends often inflate the real but intermittent risks faced by foreign correspondents from wealthier nations who travel to and report from less stable regions of the world. They do so at the expense of downplaying if not plain ignoring the much greater risks faced by local journalists who live in such…
Amnesty honors Manneh, others at Media Awards
Amnesty International paid special recognition last week to Ebrima B. Manneh, a Gambian journalist who has disappeared, at its prestigious annual Media Awards ceremony in London. As Amnesty International UK’s campaigner for individuals at risk in Africa, I was thrilled to be present at the awards ceremony and to watch BBC News TV presenter Mishal…
Eritrean president slams ‘CIA-financed’ media
Last week, President Isaias Afeworki of Eritrea, Africa’s leading jailer of journalists, discussed press freedom during an extensive interview with Swedish broadcaster TV4. Afeworki, a revered guerrilla commander who led this Red Sea country to nationhood in 1993, banned Eritrea’s budding private media in 2001 and threw journalists in secret prisons without charge or trial.…