MEDIA FREEDOM - The African Mirror

Jun

03

2026

Tributes for Souleymane Diallo – pillar of African journalism, hero of media freedom: 1945-2026

MEDIA FREEDOM

SOULEYMANE Diallo, doyen of Guinean journalism and founding pillar of the African Editors Forum (TAEF), has died - leaving an emptiness in African newsrooms and a legacy of principled, courageous journalism that reverberates across the continent. For decades, Diallo steered Le Lynx, the Guinean satirical weekly he edited, into a position of moral authority and fearless inquiry. He combined the sharpness of a seasoned editor with a calm, almost reserved dignity that masked a fierce commitment to press freedom, democracy and the rigorous pursuit of truth. As colleagues and friends in TAEF and beyond have testified in recent hours, he…

May

11

2026

By JOVIAL RANTAO

In exile and under fire, Sudanese journalists win the world’s top press freedom honour

MEDIA FREEDOM

THEY reported from rubble, from rooftops, from exile. Some transmitted dispatches while sheltering from drone strikes. Others disappeared into the silence of a war that has swallowed whole cities and shuttered newsrooms across a country the size of Western Europe. On the eve of World Press Freedom Day, the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation gave them the world’s most prestigious press freedom prize. The Sudanese Journalists Syndicate has been named the 2026 laureate of the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize — awarded in recognition of the collective’s extraordinary documentation of what has become one of the most…

Apr

30

2026

By The African Mirror

Unbowed: Zied El Heni speaks from his cell

MEDIA FREEDOM

"I went on a hunger strike from inside prison in protest against arbitrary detention, defamation without any formal complaint, and an unfair trial outside the protections of Decree 115." — Zied El Heni, from prison Those are not the words of a broken man. They are the words of a journalist who has been locked in a cell in Tunis for five days - and who refuses, with every fibre of his being, to pretend that what is happening to him is just. Zied El Heni — editor-in-chief of the independent outlet Tunisian Press, broadcaster, one of the most celebrated…

Apr

27

2026

By The African Mirror

Facebook Post. Handcuffs. Silence.

MEDIA FREEDOM

A summons. Then handcuffs. That was the arc of journalist Zied El Heni’s Friday morning in Tunis, after Tunisia’s Cybercrime Brigade — the Fifth Central Brigade for Combating Information and Communication Technology Crimes of the National Guard, headquartered in El Aouina — placed him in custody following a post he had published on his official Facebook account. El Heni had disclosed the summons himself. On Thursday, he posted publicly that he had been ordered to appear at 9:00 a.m. on Friday, 25 April 2026, at the El Aouina brigade — as a suspect. He showed up. He did not leave…

Apr

14

2026

By SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Africa mourns Cisse – founding pillar of continental press freedom

MEDIA FREEDOM

THE African Editors Forum (TAEF) has paid a warm tribute to Hameye Mahaman Cissé, one of the continent's most consequential press freedom advocates, a co-architect of pan-African editorial solidarity, and a journalist whose moral clarity shaped the conditions under which African journalism was practised for more than three decades. Cisse passed away on Thursday and has been buried in Bamako, Mali. In a statement that was equal parts institutional tribute and personal grief, TAEF described a man who was not merely present at the founding of African media structures, but foundational to them - someone who translated ideas into action,…

Apr

01

2026

By The African Mirror

Nigeria urged to forge media-government partnership amid continent-wide journalist crackdowns

MEDIA FREEDOM

VICE President Kashim Shettima called on Nigeria's media and government to unite as "partners in progress" through constructive journalism, delivering the message at a book launch amid escalating reports of journalist harassment across West Africa and beyond. Speaking on Monday at the public presentation of "My Life and Journalists Hangout" by TVC News Director Babajide Kolade-Otitoju, Shettima praised the veteran's 60th birthday and his program for fostering "critical engagement." He warned that societies crumble not from lacking ideas, but from failing to interrogate them, positioning the media as democracy's conscience - probing power, warning of dangers, illuminating truths, and avoiding…

Mar

24

2026

By The African Mirror

Mali’s Cybercrime Unit convicts newspaper editor in blow to press freedom

MEDIA FREEDOM

MALI National Cybercrime Unit has convicted Youssouf Sissoko, editor of the independent newspaper L'Alternance, in a ruling that has drawn immediate and sharp condemnation from the country's private media sector and raised fresh alarms over the state of press freedom under the country's military-led government. The Association of Private Press Publishers (ASSEP) condemned the conviction in unequivocal terms, describing it as a worrying setback for freedom of expression and freedom of the press in Mali. In a statement signed by ASSEP President Boubacar Yalkoué, the organisation warned that the judicial decision sets a dangerous precedent likely to further weaken media outlets…

Mar

21

2026

By The African Mirror

Gambian editor arrested and charged after photographing defendants outside court

MEDIA FREEDOM

A Gambian journalist faces up to a year in prison after he was arrested at the Banjul Magistrates Court on 11 March for photographing two defendants as they exited the building — a routine act of newsgathering that press freedom organisations say falls entirely within the law. Momodou Justice Darboe, editor of the online publication Jollof News Online, had attended the court to cover a hearing involving two Austrian nationals charged with disobeying lawful orders. After the session concluded, Darboe photographed the accused as they left the courtroom. He was then attacked from behind, he told the Gambia Press Union…

Mar

20

2026

By The African Mirror

African media councils adopt Lusaka Declaration to bolster self-regulation amid digital threats

MEDIA FREEDOM

REPRESENTATIVES from African media councils, self-regulatory bodies, journalists, civil society, academia, and international partners adopted the Lusaka Declaration on 18 March 2026, calling for strengthened media self-regulation, platform accountability, and defences against disinformation and AI-driven risks. The two-day African Media Councils Conference, hosted by the Media Self-Regulation Council of Zambia (MSCZ) on 17-18 March, drew on foundational documents like the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Windhoek+30, and the 2025 Arusha NIMCA Summit. Participants highlighted a shifting media landscape dominated by digital platforms, AI, and cross-border information flows, amid rising threats including political pressure, economic woes, journalist attacks, and…

Mar

16

2026

By The African Mirror

Gambia’s former Press Union leaders warn new media laws echo Jammeh-era controls

MEDIA FREEDOM

Five former presidents of the Gambia Press Union (GPU) have issued an extraordinary joint declaration condemning proposed media regulations they say would reintroduce state control over journalism through bureaucratic mechanisms, a warning that carries singular weight given that several signatories lived through the assassinations, exiles, and imprisonments of the Yahya Jammeh years. The statement, released Monday, takes direct aim at the draft National Press Accreditation Policy and the Broadcasting and Online Content Regulations 2025, characterising both instruments as an attempt to restore permission-based journalism — the defining feature of media life under the dictatorship that ended in 2017. "History teaches…