Africa

An Algerian court of appeals has upheld two-month jail terms for two journalists, including a Golden Pen of Freedom laureate, at the Algiers-based independent daily El Watan. The issue of decriminalising defamation in the country is once again back in the limelight. An appeals court, ruling on March 4, upheld defamation convictions against Omar Belhouchet, publisher of El Watan, and columnist...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reiterated its call for the release of Aboubacar Gourouza, the editor of independent bimonthly L’Eveil Plus, after a Niamey court today sentenced him to a month in prison for allegedly “discrediting” a court decision in an article in his newspaper by comparing the decision with one taken in a similar case. “Our concern is mounting as the space for free...

Soldiers raided three radio stations in Somalia on Sunday and detained the director of one of the stations, according to journalists who witnessed the events. The raids occurred after heavy fighting and looting over the weekend in the central area of the capital, Mogadishu. Journalists from Horn Afrik, Radio Shabelle, and Radio Simba told the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

Officers of the Liberia National Police assigned to the provincial city of Tubmanburg in Liberia's Bomi county on Saturday last flogged and briefly detained a journalist in capital Monrovia. Edwin Clarke of Truth FM Radio, who had gone to Tubmanburg to follow up on a news story regarding a stolen child, was ordered beaten by the commander of the Women and Child Protection unit of the Liberian...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today called on the authorities of Niger to release editor, Aboubacar Gourouza, charged with libeling a political leader and for contempt of court. “We can’t understand why the authorities in Niger have decided to persecute the journalists at this point,” said Gabriel Baglo, Director of the IFJ Africa office. “It is wrong for journalists to be...

The government of Niger has refused to provide Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) secretary-general Robert Ménard with a visa for a trip he was to have made to Niamey to participate from there in a special day of solidarity with the organisation’s imprisoned correspondent, Moussa Kaka, which Radio France Internationale is organising on March 10. After submitting a visa application to Niger’s embassy...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has expressed concern at a crackdown against the media which criticised the Cameroon government following an outbreak of rioting in Douala in the southwest part of the country. As the communications minister called on newspapers to be “responsible”, the unrest has left the privately-owned press in crisis after security forces raided the studios of Magic FM radio...

Chad is now one of the few African countries without an effective independent press since a state of emergency was declared on February 15. Journalists are fleeing abroad to escape arrest or falling silent in protest against censorship and "very serious" official threats. And now, with the adoption of a new press law by decree instead of abolishing prison sentences for press offences, it makes

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has protested at the arrest two days ago of Aboubacar Gourouza, editor of the independent bi-monthly L’Eveil Plus, by judicial police in Niger's capital Niamey in connection with two articles, one relating to an alleged plot against the former prime minister. He was brought to court Thursday, after being held by Niamey police, charged with “defamation” and “contempt...

The Zimbabwean government is cracking down on independent media with barely one month to go before presidential elections on March 29. Journalists have been arrested, summoned and ordered to reveal sources, charged with “publication of false news” and newspapers threatened with closure if they fail to comply, in an upsurge of harassment that seriously threatens press freedom ahead of polling,”...