Africa

New York, January 19, 2012--Two journalists and a U.S.-based blogger who was tried in absentia were convicted on charges of terrorism in Ethiopia today and could be sentenced to the death penalty, according to news reports.

New York, January 17, 2012--The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the deteriorating press conditions in the semi-autonomous republic of Somaliland after this weekend's detention of 21 journalists protesting a police raid on a private broadcaster.

Protesters in Nigeria are not only angry at their government's New Year's Day decision to eliminate a fuel subsidy -- they are also upset about news media coverage of the citizens' movement, dubbed "Occupy Nigeria," and have taken their protests to local media outlets.

It would be hard to find a better symbol of media repression in Africa than Eskinder Nega. The veteran Ethiopian journalist and dissident blogger has been detained at least seven times by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's government over the past two decades, and was put back in jail on September 14, 2011, after he published a column calling for the government to respect freedom of speech and freedom of assembly and to end torture in prisons.

New York, January 13, 2012---Authorities in Ghana should launch a thorough and transparent investigation into reports that state security agents on Thursday brutalized a photojournalist covering the high-profile court case of a senior police official, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

New York, January 13, 2012-- The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the recent spate of arrests of independent reporters in the semi-autonomous republic of Somaliland. 

New York, January 10, 2012--Police in Gambia are harassing a journalist for reporting farmers' complaints against a local official accused of mismanaging public resources, according to local journalists and news reports.

New York, January 10, 2012--The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on authorities in the semi-autonomous republic of Somaliland to explain why they have detained Royal Television correspondent Yusuf Ali since Sunday. 

On January 8, 1912, South African intellectuals--including pioneering black newspaper publishers Pixley ka Isaka Seme, editor of Abantu-Batho, and John Langalibalele Dube, editor of Ilanga lase Natal--formed Africa's oldest liberation movement, the African National Congress (ANC), in the Wesleyan Church in Bloemfontein.

The African media community lost a central voice this week with the passing of Samuel Kiendrebeogo, the veteran host of weekly media magazine Médias d'Afrique et D'Ailleurs on Voice of America's French service. Sam, as he was known, died while vacationing in his native Burkina Faso. He was 63.