Reporters Without Borders - The African Mirror

Nov

11

2023

Burkina Faso junta’s conscription of critics rattles civil society and unions

NEWS

BURKINA Faso's military junta is abusing an emergency law to conscript perceived dissidents and critics to join a deadly fight against militants linked to Al Qaeda and Islamic State, warned lawyers, journalists and watchdog Human Rights Watch this week. In a series of statements, civil society groups and unions for journalists and lawyers accused the junta of seeking to silence peaceful dissent as it struggled to contain the security crisis as promised when it seized power in a September 2022 coup. "We see that it (the junta) is revealing its true face and that it has not necessarily come to…

Algerian parliament approves a new law that tightens control over the media

MEDIA FREEDOM

THE Algerian parliament approved a new media law that tightens control over the work of journalists and imposes new restrictions. While the government said the law is critical to ensuring the free exercise of media activity under legal controls, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said the law included "negative chapters" that constitute a violation of press freedom. The law prohibits the Algerian media from receiving any funding or material assistance from any "foreign entity". Communication Minister Mohamed Bouslimani said the law aims to "enshrine freedom and pluralism of the press" and "protect it from all forms of deviation". The new law…

Prominent Cameroon journalist found dead after abduction

NEWS

THE mutilated body of a prominent Cameroonian journalist was found near the capital Yaounde five days after he was abducted by unidentified assailants, the press union and a colleague said. Media advocates described Martinez Zogo's disappearance and death as a further sign of the perils of reporting in the African country. Zogo, the director of private radio station Amplitude FM, was kidnapped on Jan. 17 by unknown assailants after trying to enter a police station to escape his attackers, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said. Zogo had recently been talking on air about a case of alleged embezzlement involving…