press freedom - The African Mirror

Mar

2024

By KAREN MCINTYRE and MEGHAN SOBEL COHEN

Press freedom in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda: what journalists have to say about doing their jobs

A majority of the world’s population has experienced a decline in press freedom in recent years, according to a UN report. In East Africa, the results are mixed and debatable. In Rwanda, both international press freedom rankings and journalists on the ground say press freedom has increased over the past 10 years. In neighbouring Uganda, both international rankings and local journalists say media freedom has declined. In Kenya, rankings reflect declining freedom over the past decade, but reporters acknowledge they have more freedom than their counterparts in Uganda and Rwanda. In our roles as associate professors in journalism and mass…

Aug

2022

By The African Mirror

Uhuru Kenyatta and Kenya’s media: a bitter-sweet affair that didn’t end happily

MEDIA FREEDOM

PRESIDENT Uhuru Kenyatta’s regime came into power in 2013. It was the first to implement most of the provisions of Kenya’s 2010 constitution. The media were eager to see how the government, led by Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto, would adhere to article 34 of the constitution, which deals with the freedom of the press. The two politicians had promised to expand media freedoms once in power. The relationship between the media and Kenyatta’s regime went through six stages that defined the president’s nine years in office between 2013 and 2022. It shifted from “karibuni chai” (welcome to tea)…

May

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…

Apr

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…

Apr

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…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

How press freedom was threatened during Covid-19

MEDIA FREEDOM

MEERA SELVA A free press is needed to provide the flow of information through a society, and also to hold the powerful to account and tell the stories of those who may otherwise not be heard. A free press also paints pictures of our society. It defines us and it defines the national conversation. A free press is also under attack. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 274 journalists were imprisoned last year. Thirty-two were killed, some by crossfire or in war zones, but many deliberately targeted and murdered as a direct result of their work. Not only is…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

Journalist shot dead in Ethiopia’s Tigray

MEDIA FREEDOM

AN Ethiopian journalist and his friend have been shot dead by an unidentified person in the northern Tigray region's capital Mekelle, according to an aid worker and a resident. Rights groups say press freedom has eroded since a November war between federal troops and forces loyal to the former ruling party of Tigray, which lost Mekelle at the end of that month. Dawit Kebede, who worked for Tigray regional state TV, was shot on Tuesday night while in a car with friends, one aid worker said. "Both were shot in their head and their bodies were found in a car…