Journalists with the independent media outlet Mada Masr said Monday that they were all “safe and sound,” but their thanks for international support following staff detentions by an increasingly authoritarian Egypt was overshadowed by calls to pressure President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and his government on human rights and free speech….
Amnesty International has joined the Committee to Protect Journalists and other advocacy groups in calling on the Tanzanian government to fully investigate what happened to missing freelance journalist Azory Gwanda – gone since November 2017, and now reported dead this week by the foreign minister. Palamagamba Kabudi told the BBC…
Contra Nocendi, a Paris-based NGO focusing on human rights in Burundi, Cameroon and other African nations, joined in the chorus of voices to welcome Tuesday’s announcement that journalists who are harassed, detained and killed for their work are Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” for 2018. “It is always vital…
Tensions ran high in troubled Cameroon on Sunday as the national election commission, ELECAM, prepared to announce on Monday the final result of the October 7 presidential election. ELECAM has 15 days from the poll closing to report final results according to Cameroon law, and the last of 18 legal challenges…
At a time when press freedoms are under fire in many African nations, the small southern kingdom of Lesotho took a big step forward this week as the country’s Constitutional Court ruled that criminal defamation – in this case involving a journalist – is unconstitutional. The case centered on publisher…
Prosecutors in Cameroon now say writer and university professor Patrice Nganang faces charges of contempt of state for publicly insulting President Paul Biya, while also accusing the 47-year-old scholar of death threats, illegal immigration and forgery. Nganang and his attorney, Emmanuel Simh, disputed the charges during a Saturday hearing, according…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
Mauritanian blogger Mohammed Ould Mkhaitir is now free, after an appeals court reviewed and overturned a death sentence imposed for publishing a 2014 article that challenged the use of religion to support social injustice. Mkhaitir was arrested almost four years ago after sharing his critical views on the way Islam…
In Mauritania, an appeals court is set to review on Wednesday the case of a young blogger sentenced to death after posting a 2014 article challenging the use of religion to support social injustice. Mohammed Ould Mkhaitir was arrested almost four years ago after sharing his critical views on the…
The nation of Eritrea remains one of the most repressive environments in the world for working journalists, with only North Korea ranked worse in the new Reporters Without Borders analysis released Wednesday. The 2017 World Press Freedom Index rankings are based on a range of criteria that include transparency, diversity…
As the date for Mauritania to review the death penalty case of blogger Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed draws near, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and other free-press advocates have again appealed to the nation’s leaders to reconsider his case. In a letter Friday to President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz,…