State Secrets

24 results arranged by date

South African journalists protest media restrictions on the nation's annual Day of Media Freedom. (Independent Newspapers Cape)

In South Africa, echoes of Black Wednesday

On October 19, 1977, South Africa’s government banned The World newspaper, along with Weekend World, the paper’s weekly magazine, and Pro Veritate, a Christian publication. Authorities also detained scores of activists and outlawed 17 anti-apartheid groups during the one-day crackdown, which came to be known as Black Wednesday.

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CPJ had urged King Abdullah II to reconsider online restrictions. (Reuters/Ali Jarekji)

After outcry, Jordan rolls back repressive measures

Jordanian journalists succeeded this week in turning back some of the most repressive aspects of a new law on cyber crimes. The initial version of the law, approved by the cabinet of ministers on August 3, included broad restrictions on material deemed by the state to be defamatory or to involve national security. It also…

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The Right2Know campaign opposes the government's secrecy bill. (Ghalib Galant)

South Africans rally against ‘secrecy bill’

Cape Town’s St George’s Cathedral, a rallying point for civil rights action during apartheid, was the site of the public launch on Tuesday of a mass campaign aimed at stopping a secrecy bill seen as a major threat to South Africans’ hard-won freedom.

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Presidents Mugabe and Zuma at this month's SADC summit. (EPA)

ANC plans taint Southern Africa’s press freedom leader

As heads of state gathered last week at the summit of the Southern African Development Community, or SADC, in Namibia, their discussions were dominated by the progress of Zimbabwe’s precarious power-sharing political agreement, which includes pledges to address a repressive media environment. Leading the mediation in the Zimbabwean crisis has been neighboring South Africa, which…

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