Congo

The BBC reported this week that a minister in the Democratic Republic of Congo has ordered a jail in the capital, Kinshasa, to release a dozen goats, saying the animals were being held there illegally. According to the story: "The minister said many police had serious gaps in their knowledge and they would be sent for retraining."

The goats, it seems, were about to appear in court--they faced charges of "being sold illegally by the roadside."

CPJ research indicates that the following journalists have disappeared while doing their work. Although some of them are feared dead, no bodies have been found, and they are therefore not classified as "Killed." If a journalist disappeared after being held in government custody, CPJ classifies him or her as "Imprisoned" as a way to hold the government accountable for the journalist's fate.

In August 2008, when the Olympic torch is lit in Beijing, more than 20,000 journalists will be on hand to cover the competition between the world's greatest athletes. Behind the scenes, another competition will be taking place. If the Chinese government has its way, this one will remain hidden. It will be a battle over information, and it will have far greater implications for the world than the medal count.

Ballots may have replaced bullets in much of Africa since the dawn of this new century, but one of the great political ironies for at least part of the continent has been a loss of press freedom following the voting. Leaders in a large swath of sub-Saharan Africa have drawn approving nods from Western politicians for holding sometimes unprecedented elections. Three such countries are the Gambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Ethiopia. All have democratically elected presidents and Western support. Yet between them they hold the unenviable record of placing at or near the top of CPJ's 2007 list of the world's worst backsliders on press freedom.

CPJ's TOP 10 BACKSLIDERS
Here are the nations where press freedom has deteriorated the most in the last five years.

1. ETHIOPIA
Wholesale arrests and newspaper closures decimate once-thriving press. More than three dozen journalists in exile. Critical Web sites blocked.
Key fact:
Less than a quarter of the 20 newspapers that published in 2005 are now in operation.

DECEMBER 18, 2007

Posted January 14, 2008

Talassa

CENSORED

The state-run High Council on Freedom of Communication (known by its French acronym as CSLC) suspended private bimonthly Talassa for two months over a November 23 editorial critical of President Denis Sassou Nguesso, according to local journalists and news reports.

DECEMBER 18, 2007
Posted January 14, 2008

TalassaCENSORED

The state-run High Council on Freedom of Communication (known by its French acronym as CSLC) suspended private bimonthly Talassa for two months over a November 23 editorial critical of President Denis Sassou Nguesso, according to local journalists and news reports.

Dear President Bush: In advance of your meeting with the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, President Joseph Kabila, the Committee to Protect Journalists would like to draw your attention to the acute problem of impunity in cases of violence against media workers. CPJ is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to defending press freedom worldwide.

New York, May 2, 2007--Three nations in sub-Saharan Africa are among the places worldwide where press freedom has deteriorated the most over the last five years, a new analysis by the Committee to Protect Journalists has found. Ethiopia, where the government launched a massive crackdown on the private press by...

May 2007 News from the Committee to Protect Journalists...