MEDIA FREEDOM - The African Mirror

May

12

2021

Equipped by US & Israeli firms, police in Botswana search phones for sources

MEDIA FREEDOM

ORATILE Dikologang was naked when police officers pulled black plastic over his head during his detention in April 2020. It was difficult to breathe, but the interrogation continued, he told CPJ in a recent phone interview. “What are your sources, where do you get information,” he recalled them asking repeatedly. “It was the most painful experience,” he said. Dikologang, the digital editor and co-founder of the Botswana People’s Daily News website, and two others still face jail time in relation to Facebook posts that police were investigating when they hauled the three in for questioning. CPJ documented the incidents, and made several attempts to…

Jun

23

2021

By The African Mirror

Trial of Moroccan journalists raises fears of repression

MEDIA FREEDOM

AHMED ELJETCHTIMI NEW hearings took place yesterday in the trials of two dissident journalists in Morocco accused of sexual assault, whose detention rights groups see as evidence of increasing state repression and a push to silence dissent. The two men, Soulimane Raisouni and Omar Radi, who both deny the accusations against them, have spent a year in pre-trial detention and Raisouni has been on hunger strike for over two months, raising concerns about his health. The cases have brought into focus fears that the ruling authorities are increasingly intolerant of dissent and will manipulate Moroccan law to silence critics, a…

May

06

2021

By The African Mirror

Kidnapped French journalist’s plea

MEDIA FREEDOM

A journalist who disappeared last month in Mali's northern city of Gao appeared in a video today, appealing to authorities to do everything they can to free him from Islamist militants holding him. "I'm Olivier Dubois. I'm French. I'm a journalist. I was kidnapped in Gao on April 8 by the JNIM (al Qaeda North Africa). "I'm speaking to my family, my friends and the French authorities for them to do everything in their power to free me," Dubois said in a 21-second video shared on social media. French civilians have long been favoured targets for kidnapping by criminal and…

May

03

2021

By The African Mirror

As press freedom continues to struggle in Kenya, alternatives keep hope alive

MEDIA FREEDOM

AS we mark World Press Freedom Day 2021, let us remember that 2020 was terrible for the press in many parts of the world. WAMBUI WAMUNYU, Senior Lecturer in Media Studies, Daystar University Two ranking measures – the World Press Freedom Index 2021 and African Media Barometer publications – indicate that journalists globally continued to face multiple challenges. These included intimidation, physical or online harassment, surveillance, disappearance, threats, arbitrary arrests, assaults, and lack of access to public facilities, authorities or data. Reporters Without Borders reported that 50 journalists from around the world died in the course of duty. Their deaths…

Apr

25

2021

By The African Mirror

Press freedom under lockdown across two-thirds of the globe

MEDIA FREEDOM

ED HOLT INDEPENDENT journalism is facing a growing crackdown one year into the COVID-19 pandemic as governments around the world restrict access to information and muzzle critical reporting, media and rights watchdogs have warned. Authoritarian regimes have used existing and new legislation to attack, intimidate, and jail reporters under the guise of acting to protect public health, they say, and fear the situation is unlikely to improve in many states if and when the pandemic ends. “Dictators and authoritarian leaders exploited the cover of COVID to crackdown on independent reporting and criticism. Some, instead of battling the virus, turned their…

May

29

2021

By The African Mirror

In Abiy’s Ethiopia, press freedom flourished then fear returned

MEDIA FREEDOM

MAGGIE FICK WHEN Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took over in 2018 and freed dozens of jailed members of the media as part of a raft of political reforms, journalist Dessu Dulla rushed home from the Netherlands. The 45-year-old, now a deputy editor at a local online news outlet, said he had fled repression in 2004. He initially savoured new freedoms under Abiy, who won global plaudits including the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize which noted his work on "discontinuing media censorship." Three years on, Dessu and four other Ethiopian journalists interviewed by Reuters say they once again fear a knock…

May

17

2021

By The African Mirror

Israel destroys Gaza tower housing AP and Al Jazeera offices

MEDIA FREEDOM

ISRAEL destroyed a 12-storey tower block in Gaza housing the U.S.-based Associated Press and other news media offices, saying the building was also used by the Islamist militant group Hamas. The al-Jalaa building in Gaza City, which also houses Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera and other offices and apartments, had been evacuated after the owner received advanced warning of the strike. A Palestinian journalist was wounded in the strike, Palestinian media reported, and debris and shrapnel flew dozens of yards away. The Israeli military said its fighter jets struck a multi-storey building "which contained military assets belonging to the intelligence offices…

May

14

2021

By The African Mirror

Ethiopia revokes press credentials of New York Times reporter

MEDIA FREEDOM

ETHIOPIA has revoked the press credentials of a foreign journalist working for the New York Times, according to the newspaper and an Ethiopian official. The Times said in an article today that Simon Marks, an Irish national who reports for it and other publications, had his credentials revoked by the Ethiopian Broadcasting Authority in early March, after returning to Addis Ababa from the Tigray region, where he had interviewed civilian war survivors. "Last week, after appeals by The Times were declined, the head of the Ethiopian Broadcasting Authority confirmed Mr. Marks's accreditation had been cancelled at least until October," The…

Apr

30

2021

By The African Mirror

Spyware threatens press freedom’s privacy imperative

MEDIA FREEDOM

JONATHAN ROZEN SPYWARE’S repeated use to target journalists and those close to them poses an existential threat to the privacy required for press freedom to flourish. Without the ability to privately communicate with sources, conduct research, and compile information, journalists are hampered in their ability to keep the public informed and hold the powerful to account. “The spyware attack revealed to me that regardless of where I am and what citizenship I hold, if the Moroccan government wants to gather surveillance, they will…It prevents you from being able to do your work because you don’t want to put people [you…