Remembering Cameroon’s prisoners on World Press Freedom Day

Remembering Cameroon’s prisoners on World Press Freedom Day

On this World Press Freedom, the Committee to Protect Journalists is highlighting four cases of reporters who remain in prison in Cameroon, a destabilized and increasingly repressive nation led for nearly four decades by President Paul Biya. What began in October 2016 as peaceful protests led by professionals seeking equal…

Tanzania’s latest media crackdown targets The Citizen

Tanzania’s latest media crackdown targets The Citizen

A leading English-language newspaper in Tanzania has been shut down for a week after a story on the country’s currency angered government officials, who accused The Citizen of publishing fake news. The Kiswahili site for The Citizen remained functional, with an explanation of what happened. “The closing of The Citizen…

Tanzania: Journalist watchdog group CPJ says staff detained

The Committee to Protect Journalists is calling on authorities in Tanzania to release two CPJ staffers they say were detained Wednesday night in Dar es Salaam. Angela Quintal, the CPJ coordinator for Africa, right, and colleague Muthoki Mumo went missing from their hotel room after officers who said they were…

World Press Freedom Day and the state of African media

This week Egyptian photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid will be awarded the 2018 UNESCO-Guillermo Cano Press Freedom Prize during World Press Freedom Day, hosted this year by Ghana. As with the many recipients before him, he won’t see the conference sessions or attend the gala dinner in Accra. The Egyptian, known…

Ethiopia sentences radio journalists under anti-terrorism laws

Ethiopian journalists Khalid Mohammed Ahmed, 26, and Darsema Sori Banqash, 48, were sentenced Tuesday to lengthy prison terms on anti-state charges. The former will serve five years and six months, while the latter, because of a health condition, will serve for four years and five months, the court determined. The…

Ethiopia should “allow journalists to do their jobs”

Two journalists have been arrested by the government in Ethiopia as deadly demonstrations continue in the Oromia region. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an independent nonprofit organization promoting press freedoms, on Sunday released a statement calling “on authorities in Ethiopia to release the editor-in-chief of Negere Ethiopia online newspaper,…