MEDIA FREEDOM - The African Mirror

Jul

2021

Official Secrets Act: UK government has a long history of suppressing journalism to hide its misdeeds

THE UK government recently put out for consultation proposals for toughening the Official Secrets Act, ostensibly to deter foreign spies. PAUL LASHMAR, Reader in Journalism, City, University of London Many lawyers, lawmakers and journalists have argued that laws concerning official data and secrets are in need of updating to fit a world where espionage and leaks are largely conducted through new technology. But a close reading of the new proposals suggests the agenda is as much to deter journalists, whistleblowers and sources from embarrassing government and intelligence agencies. The words “journalist” and “journalism” appear nowhere in the main text, and…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

Uganda security personnel beat journalists covering petition on rights abuses

MEDIA FREEDOM

ELIAS BIRYABAREMA UGANDAN military and police officers beat and seriously injured journalists on Wednesday as they covered the delivery of a petition about human rights violations to a United Nations office, a rights group said. The security personnel assaulted the journalists as they covered opposition leader and pop star Bobi Wine, who was petitioning the local U.N. human rights office to investigate reported incidents of rights violations. Police will release a statement on the incident later, a police spokesman said. At least 20 journalists were hurt in the attack, with at least four sustaining deep cuts on the head that…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Botswana police use Israeli Cellebrite Tech to search another journalist’s phone

MEDIA FREEDOM

JONATHAN ROZEN TSAONE Basimanebotlhe was not expecting security agents to appear at her home in a village outside Gaborone, Botswana’s capital, in July 2019, she told CPJ in a recent interview. But they didn’t come to arrest or charge her, she recalled – they came for her devices, hunting for the source for an article published by her employer, Mmegi newspaper. Basimanebotlhe, a politics reporter, said she surrendered her phone and password to the agents after they presented a warrant and could not find her computer. A senior officer then used technology sold by the Israel-based company Cellebrite to extract and analyze thousands of…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

Public trust in the media is at a new low: a radical rethink of journalism is needed

MEDIA FREEDOM

A recent report by an independent panel on the ethics and credibility of South Africa’s news media makes for worrying reading. The panel, headed by retired judge Kathy Satchwell, was commissioned by the South African National Editors’ Forum following a series of ethical lapses by the Sunday Times. The paper dominated the country’s media landscape for over 100 years. As the largest by circulation, it was also considered the most powerful newspaper. HERMAN WASSERMAN, Professor of Media Studies in the Centre for Film and Media Studies, University of Cape Town The lapses included factual inaccuracies in reports on allegations of…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Nigerian regulator tells TV stations to curb reporting on violence

MEDIA FREEDOM

NIGERIA’S broadcasting regulator has asked TV stations to curb their reporting of insecurity in the country by withholding details of incidents and victims, in what a leading civil society group described as a “sweeping gag order”. Africa’s most populous nation is facing multiple security crises, with the northeast in the grip of a decade-long Islamist insurgency, the northwest hit by a wave of mass abductions of schoolchildren, and kidnappings for ransom rife in many states. Some experts say the surge in criminality is partly driven by economic hardship caused by the COVID-19 shock in 2020, while the World Bank has…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

Algerian journalist released after presidential pardon

MEDIA FREEDOM

KHALED Drareni, an Algerian journalist whose imprisonment led to several protests that highlighted the state crackdown on freedom of expression, has been released after he received a presidential pardon. Drareni was serving two years in prison, reduced from three years, after he was convicted of charges which included “threatening national unity” and "inciting unarmed gatherings". Drareni was jailed with activists Samir Benlarbi and Slimane Hamitouche, who were found guilty of inciting unarmed gatherings.

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Moroccan court sentences striking dissident journalist to five years in jail

MEDIA FREEDOM

A Moroccan court in Casablanca on Friday handed a five-year jail sentence to Moroccan dissident journalist Soulimane Raisouni on sexual assault charges, which he denies, in a case that outraged human rights advocates in the country. Raisouni has been on a hunger strike for over 80 days to protest his pre-trial detention since May 2020. The plaintiff and witnesses were heard in the absence of Raisouni and his defence which had withdrawn from attending hearings since Tuesday citing concerns about a fair trial. "A fair trial cannot take place in the absence of the defendant himself," said his lawyer Souad…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Tunisian journalists protest over new head of state news agency

MEDIA FREEDOM

TAREK AMARA TUNISIAN police yesterday clashed with journalists at the state news agency demonstrating against a new chief executive whose appointment they see as an attempt to undermine editorial independence. Dozens of protesting journalists had gathered in front of Tunis Afrique Presse's (TAP) headquarters to try to stop Kamel Ben Younes from entering, but police later forced a way in. "TAP is free and police must go," the journalists chanted. Protesting journalists say Ben Younes is too close to the moderate Islamist Ennahda, the biggest party in parliament. They accuse him of backing moves to control the press before the…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

New head of Tunisian state news agency quits after protests

MEDIA FREEDOM

THE new head of Tunisia's state news agency has resigned after its journalists demonstrated against his appointment in protest at what they called an attempt to undermine editorial independence. After Kamel Ben Younes' resignation, the journalists' syndicate said it would cancel its first-ever strike planned for April 22 and end a boycott of news about the government. Dozens of protesting journalists had gathered in front of Tunis Afrique Presse's (TAP) headquarters on April 13 to try to stop Ben Younes from entering, but police later forced a way in and beat journalists. "I resigned to avoid being involved in political…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

Punitive laws are failing to curb misinformation in Africa. Time for a rethink

MEDIA FREEDOM

MISINFORMATION, best understood as false or misleading information whether or not it was intended to mislead, has long been recognised as a problem worldwide. Together with disinformation, which is spread deliberately to misinform or mislead, it constitutes a key part of the information disorder distorting public debate around the world. PETER CUNLIFFE-JONES, Visiting Researcher & Co-Director Chevening African Media Freedom Fellowship, University of Westminster ALAN FINLAY, Lecturer: Journalism and Media Studies, University of the Witwatersrand ANYA SCHIFFRIN, Director, Technology, Media, and Communications specialization, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University Concern about the effects of misinformation on individuals and…