MEDIA FREEDOM - The African Mirror

Dec

25

2020

Four jailed Burundian journalists pardoned by president

MEDIA FREEDOM

FOUR Burundian journalists arrested in 2019 and jailed in January for offences including undermining state security have been granted a presidential pardon. "Under the terms of the present decree, the convicted prisoners Ndirubusa Agnès, Harerimana Égide, Mpozenzi Terence are granted a complete remission of the freedom-depriving sentence," President Evariste Ndayishimiye said in a decree. The three all worked for domestic news website Iwacu, as did a fourth journalist who was not mentioned in the decree but who confirmed his release on Thursday. Willy Nyamitwe, head of information and communication in the president's office, tweeted on Thursday that the four journalists…

Dec

25

2020

By The African Mirror

Tributes for veteran journalist after sudden death

MEDIA FREEDOM

AFRICA MIRROR REPORTER TRIBUTES have poured in for legendary Zimbabwean journalist Foster Dongozi who has passed on after a short illness. Journalists, editors and media organisations throughout Africa have paid warm tributes to Dongozi, who was secretary-general of the Zimbabwean Union of Journalists (ZUJ). The African Editors Forum said: “The African Editors Forum dips its banners to mourn Foster, a media freedom activist who dedicated his life to the cause. We send our condolences and wish strength to his family and the entire Zimbabwean media industry. The media freedom spear has fallen, let's pick it up!! May Foster's soul rest…

Dec

31

2020

By The African Mirror

Reuters cameraman detained in Ethiopia has seen no evidence against him, lawyer says

MEDIA FREEDOM

REUTERS cameraman Kumerra Gemechu has been held in solitary confinement for nearly a week without charge or being given any evidence of wrongdoing, his lawyer said. His lawyer Melkamu Ogo said on Wednesday that police informed him that their lines of enquiry included accusations of disseminating false information, communicating with groups fighting the government, and disturbing the public's peace and security. However, he said he has seen no evidence. REUTERS cameraman Kumerra Gemechu. Picture: Twitter Kumerra was arrested at his home in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa last Thursday and is being held until at least Jan. 8 pending a…

Dec

28

2020

By The African Mirror

Ethiopian police arrest Reuters cameraman

MEDIA FREEDOM

A Reuters cameraman, Kumerra Gemechu, was arrested in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa and will be kept in custody for at least two weeks, his family said. He has not been charged. No reason was provided to the family for Thursday's arrest, and police did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment. Kumerra, 40, has worked for Reuters as a freelance cameraman for a decade. At a brief court hearing on Friday, where no lawyer was present, a judge ordered Kumerra's detention for a further 14 days to give police time to investigate, the family said. In a statement on…

Dec

15

2020

By The African Mirror

Record number of journalists imprisoned in 2020 – report

MEDIA FREEDOM

A record number of journalists were imprisoned during 2020, as governments cracked down on coverage of the coronavirus pandemic or tried to suppress reporting of civil unrest, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has announced. At least 274 journalists were in jail as of December 1, the most since the New York-based group began collecting data in the early 1990s, the report said, up from at least 250 last year. Protests and political tensions were the cause of many arrests, with the most made in China, Turkey, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, it said. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, authoritarian leaders tried…

Sep

25

2021

By The African Mirror

Burundian journalist briefly held while investigating blasts – official

MEDIA FREEDOM

BURUNDI on Friday briefly detained a journalist investigating a grenade attack in the commercial capital Bujumbura, his radio station and an official said, after a series of explosions this week that killed at least five people. Radio Bonesha FM said their reporter was arrested while investigating a grenade incident that was said to have killed two people on Thursday. "Radio Bonesha FM journalist arrested on Friday morning by the police has just been released. Aimé Richard Niyonkuru is still waiting for his recorder. He spent many hours at the Special Research Office under the hot sun," the station wrote on…

Sep

16

2021

By The African Mirror

Police beat journalist, fire tear gas during Congo election protest

MEDIA FREEDOM

POLICE beat a journalist and fired tear gas to disperse a small crowd in Democratic Republic of Congo's capital Kinshasa during an opposition protest over alleged election meddling, eyewitnesses said. Around 20 protesters gathered in response to a call by opposition leader Martin Fayulu and were met with stiff resistance from police. Police beat and temporarily detained Patient Ligodi, a journalist working for Radio France International, while he was interviewing Fayulu. "They threw me to the ground and started to hit me," Ligodi said in a video shared on social media. Video shot by broadcaster France 24 showed Ligodi being…

Jan

29

2021

By The African Mirror

Ramaphosa endorses the digital platform for the safety of journalists in Africa

MEDIA FREEDOM

CYRIL RAMAPHOSA THE media has a crucial role to play in the historic and continent-wide movement by Africans to build a continent of their dreams. Our march towards the achievement of the aspirations of Agenda 2063 – of the Africa we want – requires that we nurture and protect a free and independent media. It requires that we vigorously defend the right of journalists to do their work, to write, to publish and to broadcast what they like, even if we disagree with some or all of it. Africa is on the march to entrench a culture of human rights,…

Jan

28

2021

By The African Mirror

Tunisian press syndicate criticise police over night arrest

MEDIA FREEDOM

TUNISIAN police slapped and arrested a photojournalist working at night despite his having an authorisation to be out after curfew, the national press syndicate said on Wednesday amid criticism of the security forces' handling of protests. Islem Hkiri, a freelance photographer, was charged with breaking curfew and assaulting a public servant. He had earlier published pictures of police using pepper spray during a recent surge of protests in Tunisia, a democracy since the 2011 revolution that inspired the "Arab spring". Protesters have decried both inequality and police abuses. Security forces have arrested more than 1,200 people including many under the…

Sep

11

2021

By The African Mirror

Escalating Sinophobia in SA’s media

MEDIA FREEDOM

IN “Seven Centuries of Slander”, an essay in the current issue of The New York Review, Sarah Lipton reviews two significant new books on the history of anti-Semitism. She concludes that they offer the same lesson: “The well of gullibility has to be primed through frequent repetition, especially with the backing of seemingly authoritative sources.” This places a particular responsibility on socially authorised forms of making public meaning, in particular those that, like the media and the academy, present themselves as operating in the public interest. In South Africa, journalism, like the academy, is frequently animated by a strong sense of its own…