MEDIA FREEDOM - The African Mirror

Mar

11

2026

Shot, detained, silenced: Somalia’s war on journalists deepens as Africa’s press freedom crisis widens

MEDIA FREEDOM

ON a night in early March, freelance journalist Abshir Khalif Shide Omar was returning from an Iftar gathering with colleagues in Kismayo, having just finished editing a programme about politicians scheduled for broadcast that same evening. He never made it home. A police officer shot him dead following a brief altercation in the commercial capital of the autonomous Jubbaland region, some 528 kilometres south of Mogadishu — making him the first journalist killed in Somalia in 2026. His death is not an aberration. It is the continuation of a documented pattern. The Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS), releasing its annual State…

Mar

07

2026

By PENDA THIAM, BIRD STORY AGENCY

A women-led media co is challenging norms in Senegal

MEDIA FREEDOM

IN Dakar, Senegal, journalist and women's rights advocate Alice Djiba has made it her mission to shake up the status quo in the country's media landscape. For a long time, she was disturbed by something she noticed: in the press, women do not often appear in positions of agency and autonomy; women are not well-represented in the media, in regards to the content and in media workspaces; women do not have large media platforms where they can make their voices known; television programs and stations are dominated by men. Despite financial obstacles and social barriers, Djiba decided to create the…

Feb

26

2026

By The African Mirror

Kenya’s journalists under legal siege as press freedom erodes, new report warns

MEDIA FREEDOM

NAIROBI — More than four in ten journalists and media organisations in Kenya have faced legal threats in response to their reporting, including arrest, costly litigation and the forced shutdown of online platforms, according to a landmark report that lays bare the systematic use of the law to silence the press in one of Africa's most prominent democracies. The report, Weaponising the Law: Press Freedom in Kenya, published by the Thomson Reuters Foundation in partnership with ALT Advisory and Power Law Africa, identifies six primary categories of legal threat confronting Kenyan media: abuse of court processes, regressive legislation, weak enforcement…

Feb

23

2026

By The African Mirror

Released But Not Free: Journalists fear police mined their devices after Cameroon detention

MEDIA FREEDOM

FOUR journalists detained and threatened by Cameroonian judicial police last week walked free after five hours in custody - but without their phones, cameras, or laptops. Days later, their equipment was returned but fear on what was being done with those devices when they were in the hands of the police is generating serious alarm across newsrooms and press freedom organisations. The journalists - AP reporters Nalova Akua, Angel Ngwe, and Arnold Ndal, along with freelance reporter Randy Joe Sa'ah - were seized on February 17 in Yaoundé after reporting on covert U.S. deportation flights that had brought African migrants…

Feb

20

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

Spyware attack on Angolan journalist exposes deepening threat to press freedom

MEDIA FREEDOM

AN Angolan journalist and lawyer was infected with powerful commercial spyware on World Press Freedom Day last year, in what the Committee to Protect Journalists says is the first publicly documented case of spyware targeting in the country — a disturbing signal of how surveillance technology is being deployed to silence the press ahead of elections. Teixeira Cândido, a prominent radio host and former union leader known for his criticism of Angola's government, had his phone compromised with Predator spyware after clicking a malicious WhatsApp link on May 3, 2024, according to CPJ, citing forensic findings by Amnesty International's Security…

Feb

16

2026

By The African Mirror

Ethiopia revokes Reuters credentials in latest crackdown on media freedom

MEDIA FREEDOM

ETHIOPIAN authorities have stripped three Reuters journalists of their press credentials following an investigative report alleging the country is secretly training fighters for Sudan's civil war, marking the latest assault on media freedom in Ethiopia and across Africa. The Ethiopian Media Authority declined to renew the journalists' accreditation on February 14 and revoked Reuters' credentials to cover the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The regulatory action came four days after Reuters published an investigation from Nairobi, London, and Cairo reporting that Ethiopia was hosting a secret camp, financed by the United Arab…

Feb

13

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

Media freedom collapses across the Sahel as juntas tighten grip on independent press

MEDIA FREEDOM

THE February 5 arrest of prominent Malian journalist Youssouf Sissoko marks the latest escalation in a systematic assault on press freedom across the Sahel, where military juntas are weaponising vaguely worded legislation to criminalise independent reporting and crush dissent. Police detained Sissoko, editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaper L'Alternance, at his Bamako residence following publication of an article that scrutinised statements by Niger's military ruler, Gen. Abdourahamane Tiani. The piece challenged Tiani's unsubstantiated allegations - made after a late-January Islamic State attack on Niamey's international airport - that France, Côte d'Ivoire, and Benin were complicit in the assault. Charged with spreading…

Feb

10

2026

By The African Mirror

African editors to tackle media crisis at Nairobi congress

MEDIA FREEDOM

AFRICA's top media leaders and editors will convene in Nairobi on February 23-24 to address mounting challenges threatening journalism across the continent, organisers announced. The African Editors Forum (TAEF) will host the Africa Editors Congress 2026 at the Graduate School for Media and Communications, Aga Khan University, bringing together editors, policymakers, and media executives to confront what organisers describe as a "multifaceted crisis" in African journalism. The two-day congress comes as newsrooms battle declining revenues, regulatory pressures, and eroding public trust, fueled by widespread misinformation on social media platforms. "Journalism's integrity, relevance, and sustainability are under threat," TAEF stated, highlighting…

Feb

07

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

Sudanese journalist held 100 days without charge, union demands release

MEDIA FREEDOM

A Sudanese journalist has been detained for 100 days without charges or legal documentation, according to the Union of Sudanese Journalists, which issued an urgent statement calling for his immediate release. Muammar Ibrahim was arrested by the Rapid Support Forces while leaving Al-Fasher and transferred to Nyala in South Darfur State, the union said in a statement released this week. He has been held without access to a lawyer or his family. The union characterised the detention as "an organised crime against press freedom and society's right to knowledge" and part of a systematic effort to silence independent journalism in…

Jan

29

2026

By The African Mirror

Military officers assault journalist in Ghana

MEDIA FREEDOM

Military officers detained and beat a journalist in Ghana's North East Region, raising fresh concerns about press freedom in the West African nation, according to a statement released by the West Africa Editors Society. Solomon Kanaluwe, North East Regional Correspondent for Media General, was subjected to severe beatings with sticks during his detention by military personnel, leaving him with lacerations and wounds across his body, the organization said. The incident marks the second assault on a Ghanaian journalist by state security forces in less than a month. In December, officers of the Ghana National Fire Service assaulted Samuel Addo of…