journalist - The African Mirror

Mar

2024

Congo prosecutor seeks 20-year jail sentence for journalist

A prosecutor in the Democratic Republic of Congo has asked a court in the capital Kinshasa to sentence journalist Stanis Bujakera to 20 years in prison, one of his lawyers said. Bujakera, a Congolese national who works for international media outlets including Reuters, was detained on September 8 and later charged with spreading false information about the death of a prominent opposition politician. He denies the charges. "The prosecutor has requested that our client be sentenced for the sum of all offences to a cumulative penalty of 20 years, and the payment of one million Congolese francs ($364)," Bujakera's lawyer,…

Mar

2024

By The African Mirror

Senegalese president condemns violent attack against journalist

NEWS

SENEGAL'S President Macky Sall condemned a violent knife attack on a prominent female journalist and director of a private television station. Maimouna Ndour Faye, who presents a political programme for 7TV television channel, was attacked and stabbed several times near her home in the early hours of Friday by an unknown assailant, the channel said in a statement. Faye was hospitalised and her condition is stable, it said. The attack comes amid heightened political tension in the West African nation over the postponement of a presidential election that was scheduled for February 25. It was unclear if the attack was politically motivated,…

Dec

2023

By JOVIAL RANTAO

“The Boy from Silvertown who shook Africa and the world with love, respect and humility”

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP, EDITORS CHOICE

TODAY we not only mourn the departure of a man but we celebrate the extraordinary life of Jermaine Craig - a beacon of love, humility, and unparalleled talent whose legacy transcends borders, touches hearts, and reshapes the very essence of sports journalism in South Africa and beyond. Jermaine's journey began in the humble streets of Silvertown, Cape Town - a boy with dreams as vast as the African sky, fueled by a passion for sports and an unwavering commitment to capturing the intricate tapestry of athletic triumphs and tribulations. Through his words, he painted the vivid portrait of South Africa's…

Sep

2023

By The African Mirror

Kole Omotoso, the Nigerian writer, scholar and actor who inspired a continent

LITERATURE

BANKOLE Ajibabi Omotoso, better known as Kole Omotoso, the Nigerian novelist, playwright, journalist, scholar and actor, died on 19 July 2023. His son Akin Omotoso, a filmmaker, announced the death of the writer on Instagram. It came at a time when Nigeria was celebrating the 89th birthday of Wole Soyinka, Africa’s first Nobel laureate in literature and Omotoso’s colleague at the then-University of Ife. Both were so prominent nationwide that everyone wanted to go to Ife and study at their feet, especially those aspiring to a career in the arts or humanities. OLAYINKA OYEGBILE, Journalist and Communications scholar, Trinity University,…

Jun

2023

By The African Mirror

‘Peter Pan’ Enahoro, Nigerian journalist and publisher, was not afraid to speak his mind

MEDIA FREEDOM

THERE are some people whose lives intersect with yours even if you never meet them in the flesh. One of these was Peter Osajele Aizegbeobor Enahoro, the Nigerian journalist who was also known by his pen name, Peter Pan. Enahoro died on 24 April 2023 in London, aged 88. He had worked in Nigeria from 1954 to 1967. As a journalist and journalism teacher, I have followed his career – one of professional excellence and achievements. He was a bold journalist who was not afraid to say what he thought was right. Author OLAYINKA OYEGBILE, Journalist and Communications scholar, Trinity…

May

2023

By The African Mirror

Gunmen kill journalist in restive northwest Cameroon, says union

NEWS

AMINDEH BLAISE ATABONG GUNMEN shot dead a journalist late in Bamenda, a city in Cameroon's troubled northwest region, the local journalists' union said, in at least the third killing of a media worker in the country this year. Anye Nde Nsoh, the west and northwest region bureau chief for weekly newspaper the Advocate, was in a pub in Bamenda's Ntarikon neighbourhood when unidentified assailants opened fire on him, said colleague Melanie Ndefru, who was close to the scene of the attack. Earlier this year, a radio presenter and a journalist were killed in two separate attacks in or near the…

Apr

2023

By The African Mirror

Ruth Weiss, journalist who fought apartheid, finally honoured in South Africa

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

A prophet has no honour in their homeland, goes the biblical adage. But of the many places that journalist, author and activist Ruth Weiss has lived – Germany (where she was born), South Africa, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Britain, Zambia and Denmark – which is her home? On 28 April, South Africa’s president will bestow an Order of the Companions of O.R. Tambo on Weiss “for her contribution to the liberation struggle” and shining “the light on injustices in South Africa”. Author MELANIE BOEHI, Chercheuse postdoctorale, Université de Lausanne, Section d'histoire, University of the Witwatersrand This award – a national…

Jan

2023

By The African Mirror

In Mexico, a reporter published a story. The next day he was shot dead

WORLD

SARAH KINOSIAN JUST after sunset on Thursday, February 10th, two men in a white Dodge Ram pickup pulled up in front of Heber Lopez Vasquez's small radio studio in southern Mexico. One man got out, walked inside and shot the 42-year-old journalist dead. Lopez's 12-year-old son Oscar, the only person with him, hid, Lopez's brother told Reuters. Lopez was one of 13 Mexican journalists killed in 2022, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York-based rights group. It was the deadliest year on record for journalists in Mexico, now the most dangerous country for reporters in the…

Nov

2022

By The African Mirror

Juby Mayet, legendary South African writer and journalist, remembered through new book

LITERATURE

SOUTH African writer Juby Mayet passed away in 2019 at the age of 82. She wrote her autobiography in 1997 but it has only now been published, 25 years later. Freedom Writer: My Life and Times finally places the spotlight on an outstanding figure in South African journalism. Mayet was a reporter in Johannesburg from 1957 until 1978, and during those two decades, she wrote for important popular and political publications. These included the tabloid newspaper Golden City Post, the famous Drum magazine, the UBJ Bulletin published by the anti-apartheid Union of Black Journalists, and the anti-apartheid periodical The Voice.…

Sep

2022

By The African Mirror

South Africa’s Jacob Zuma is taking a top reporter to court. The verdict could affect journalists’ rights

MEDIA FREEDOM

SOUTH African journalism organisations this week rallied around well-known journalist Karyn Maughan when former president Jacob Zuma initiated a private prosecution against her. Zuma faces 16 counts of corruption for taking a monthly payment of US$34,000 from French arms firm Thales while he was deputy president from 1999 and later president from 2009 to 2018. Thales was involved in South Africa’s massive arms purchase deal during that period. Author ANTON HARBER, Caxton Professor of Journalism, University of the Witwatersrand Zuma had originally laid charges against the prosecutor in his corruption case, Billy Downer, for giving a medical certificate from the…