Africa

Dakar, July 3, 2024—The Burkinabe authorities must do everything possible to find and ensure the safety of missing journalists Serge Atiana Oulon, Kalifara Séré, and Adama Bayala, and refrain from censoring the media, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday. At least three Burkinabe journalists in the capital, Ouagadougou, have separately disappeared under suspicious circumstances…

Dakar, June 27, 2024 — Malian authorities should urgently investigate the disappearance of journalist Yeri Bocoum and account for his whereabouts, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday. Bocoum, director of the Facebook news page YBC-Communication, was last seen by his family outside his home in Kati, a district in the western region of Koulikoro,…

Nairobi, June 27, 2024 — Ugandan authorities should release journalists Dickson Mubiru and Alirabaki Sengooba, drop all criminal charges against them, and take steps to reform laws that can be used to stifle journalism, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday. On June 20 the Buganda Road Chief Magistrates Court in the capital, Kampala, charged…

Nairobi, June 25, 2024—Kenyan authorities must investigate reports of several journalists attacked while covering protests, desist from intimidating the media, and ensure reliable and secure access to the internet, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday. Thousands of Kenyans have taken to the streets several times since June 18 to protest a proposed law that…

On May 16, four supporters of Ghana’s ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) assaulted Dokurugu Abubakar Ndeeya, a reporter with the privately owned Zaa Multimedia, while he was filming outside a meeting between Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia and party leaders in the northern Tamale region, the journalist told CPJ and media reports said. Ndeeya told CPJ he…

Lusaka, Zambia, June 21, 2024—Nigerian authorities should drop all criminal charges against Precious Eze Chukwunonso, publisher of the privately owned outlet News Platform, who was detained for nearly three weeks, following a complaint about his reporting, and allow journalists to work without fear of arrest, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday. On May 27,…

Dakar, June 20, 2024—Nigerien authorities must decriminalize defamation and ensure that the country’s cybercrime law does not unduly restrict the work of the media, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Thursday. On June 7, Niger’s head of state Abdourahamane Tchiani, who overthrew the democratically elected president in July 2023, reintroduced prison sentences of one…

When Belete Kassa’s friend and news show co-host Belaye Manaye was arrested in November 2023 and taken to the remote Awash Arba military camp known as the “Guantanamo of the desert,” Belete feared that he might be next. The two men co-founded the YouTube-based channel Ethio News in 2020, which had reported extensively on a conflict that…

Kinshasa, June 17, 2024—Authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo should ensure a credible investigation into the June 3 assaults on reporters Esaïe Mbusa and Néhémie Paluku, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Monday. Around a dozen people assaulted Mbusa and Paluku at a local church in Mambasa territory, in the country’s northeast…

Kampala, Uganda, June 17, 2024—Burundian authorities must desist from intimidating the independent news outlet Iwacu Press Group and swiftly investigate recent police attacks on two of the outlet’s journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday. Iwacu received a letter on June 6 from Burundi’s media regulator, known by its French acronym CNC, accusing the…