Africa

The principle of press freedom has been enshrined in Guinea’s new constitution with the promulgation of two new laws by the country’s military leader, Gen Sékouba Konaté on June 22. The first decriminalises press offences while the other creates a new media regulatory body. The laws were published in the government gazette on June 28, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). “The new laws...

The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) Thursday launched Women in News (WIN), an initiative to help women in middle management in southern African news media to advance their careers. Eighteen media professionals from Botswana, Namibia and Zambia were meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa Thursday and Friday for the start of a six-month programme of events that include...

Eight journalists were critically wounded in a bomb attack on Tuesday. The attack took place at a police school in the Abdiasis district of northern Mogadishu, according to the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ). The journalists were wounded after a bomb exploded at the police training facility where an Al-Shabaab spokesman was holding a press conference. Al-Shabaab took over the base on...

Ethiopia’s postal service should a conduct thorough and transparent investigation into the tampering of mail addressed to the country’s leading critical newspaper, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. Awramba Times Editor-in-Chief Dawit Kebede said the paper has complained to the Ethiopian Postal Service at least three times since June 6 after finding opened and destroyed envelopes...

Authorities in Rwanda announced on Monday the arrest of two individuals in the murder of journalist Jean-Léonard Rugambage, who was shot late Thursday as he drove through the gate to his home in Kigali. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) expressed scepticism about the arrests and called on authorities to disclose details of their investigation. “The burden is on the Rwandan government to...

A top editor of an independent Rwandan newspaper that was recently banned by the government was assassinated in front of his home late Thursday. An assailant shot Jean-Léonard Rugambage, acting editor of Umuvugizi as he drove through the gate of his home in the capital, Kigali, around 10 p.m., Rwanda National police spokesperson Eric Kayiranga told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). “At...

Authorities in Ethiopia expelled an American journalist on Thursday who had been reporting near a rebel area in the east of the Horn of Africa country, according to local journalists. Heather Murdock had been reporting with the US international broadcaster Voice of America (VOA) in the eastern region of Harar, near an area where there was reported skirmishes between the army and rebels of the...

A suspended prison sentence was handed to a Gabonese journalist this week over an article raising questions about the unsolved murder of a government official, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). On Monday, a criminal court in the capital, Libreville, convicted Jonas Moulenda, a reporter with the state-owned daily L’Union, on charges of criminal defamation and gave him a...

Veteran Zambian Editor Fred M’membe was sent to prison Friday following his sentencing for contempt of court sparked by an op-ed on the state’s prosecution of a journalist, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Having convicted M’membe earlier this week, Magistrate David Simusamba sentenced the the editor-in-chief of Zambia’s largest newspaper, The Post, to four months in prison...

Ten Radio Fahazavana employees, including six journalists, were placed in pre-trial detention in a prison in Madagascar on May 27 on charges of threatening state security and inciting revolt, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). They had been held in police custody since a May 20 raid on the station, which has been closed. “Radio Fahazavana’s employees have the right to a trial as soon as...