Africa

The permanent secretary for information and publicity, George Charamba, and President Robert Mugabe's spokesperson have threatened to ban accredited foreign bureaus or local reporters working for foreign news organisations after accusing them of embarking on a propaganda assault on Zimbabwe, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has reported. In an interview during the Zimbabwe...

The chairperson of Namibia's Legislative body, the National Council, has called on the Ombudsman Office to investigate the Namibian's SMS readers' page and radio chat show programmes as to whether they are being used to demonise Namibian leaders. The Namibian publishes SMS messages from readers on various topics in Namibia. The call was made by Margret Mensah, chairperson of the National Council...

Journalist Habib Papy Boudendji, popularly known as Habib Bilalou, of satirical weekly Le Nganga, left hospital on December 10 after treatment for serious injuries from a brutal beating by soldiers within the presidential palace on December 5. In one of his articles, carried by Le Nganga on November 27, he pointed the finger at the head of state’s eldest daughter and director of the presidential...

Journalists in the Gambia still live in fear of authorities who have allowed continuing impunity to the killers of Deyda Hydara, co-founder of the Point, four years after his murder on December 16, 2004. Hydara, who was also correspondent for Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Reporters sans Frontières (RSF), was shot dead by unidentified gunmen from a taxi as he was driving his car in an outlying...

Contrary to initial claims by the Mozambican police, Aníbal “Anibalzinho” António dos Santos Junior, the convicted killer of journalist Carlos Cardoso, was not recaptured after escaping from prison for the third time on December 7 and is still on the run. “We are puzzled and worried,” Paris-based Reporters sans frontières (RSF) reacted. “How can a convict of this kind escape three times...

The police in Burkina Faso on Monday summoned four leaders of the Collective against Impunity, two days after they organised a march calling for a renewed investigation into the unsolved 1998 murder of investigative journalist Norbert Zongo. Among those questioned was Jean-Claude Meda, the president of the Association of Journalists of Burkina Faso, who told the New York-based Committee to Protect...

The Botswana Parliament on December 10 pressed ahead with passing of the controversial Media Practitioners Bill. The bill, which faced fierce objections and an outcry from the media and the public in general, is now at the parliamentary committee stage before the final vote, according to the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA). The bill provides for the setting up of a statutory media...

A former Voice of America (VOA) journalist and four soldiers have been convicted of state security crimes in Angola and sentenced to 12 years in prison in a trial that, Human Rights Watch (HRS) says, fell far short of internaitonal fair trial standards. On September 16, 2008, a military court in the Angolan enclave of Cabinda convicted former VOA journalist, Fernando Lelo, and four soldiers of...

Habib Papy Boubendji, an investigative journalist with Le Nganga, a satirical weekly in Gabon, was badly beaten by soldiers inside the presidential compound in Libreville on the night of December 5, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Boubendji, also known as Habib Bibalou, is now in intensive care in a military hospital near the capital where only his wife is allowed to visit him. "The...

The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) is protesting the shutting down of Radio Markabley in the Bardhere District of Gedo Region in southwest Somalia by the Regional Islamic Administration. The head of security at the Islamic Administration in Bardhere, Sheik Barre Qoje, went to the newly established radio station on December 10 around 7:20 p.m. (local time) and ordered it to shut down...