Africa

Contact CPJ Africa

Twitter: @CPJAfrica
Facebook: CPJAfrica
Africa Program Head:
Angela Quintal

Africa Program Coordinator:
Muthoki Mumo

Senior Africa Researcher:
Jonathan Rozen

Tel: 212-465-1004
Fax: 212-214-0640

Knight Foundation Press Freedom Center
P.O. Box 2675
New York, NY 10108 USA

  

Journalists covering eastern DRC conflict face death threats, censorship

The M23 rebel group’s assault on the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s eastern city of Goma has brought familiar dangers for Congolese journalists, who for years have navigated intimidation and attacks from government and armed groups in the country’s restive, mineral-rich east. Advances by the M23, which United Nations experts say is supported by the…

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Guinean regulator bans news site Dépêche Guinée

Dakar, January 30, 2025—Guinea’s High Authority of Communication should reverse its decision to indefinitely suspend the privately owned news site Dépêche Guinée and ensure the public has unrestrained access to diverse media sources, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday. “The banning of Dépêche Guinée represents an escalation of the Guinean communications regulator’s censorship efforts and…

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A traffic police officer gestures directing motorists along a street, following a night of gunfire after security forces moved to arrest the former head of the intelligence service, in Juba, South Sudan November 22, 2024. REUTERS/Samir Bol

South Sudan blocks social media access amid unrest

Nairobi, January 24, 2025– The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on South Sudanese authorities to reverse its social media ban and to ensure that the public has open and reliable internet access, which is essential for news gathering amid unrest in the country. “Blocking social media access is a blanket act of censorship and a disproportionate response…

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(Courtesy of Joseph Perzoladepecheinfo)

Benin’s regulator suspends 6 media outlets until further notice

Dakar, January 23, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists urges Beninese authorities to reverse their January 21 orders suspending six privately owned media outlets — news sites Reporter Médias Monde, Les Pharaons, and Crystal News, the Mme Actu Tiktok account, and Le Patriote and Audace Info newspapers — and to return the press card of Audace Info’s publication director…

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CPJ finds flaws, inconsistencies in murder conviction of Senegalese journalist René Capain Bassène

In spite of the Senegalese gendarmerie officer holding a gun held to his head, Ibou Sané held firm. He refused the officer’s order to admit that he knew René Capain Bassène – but in the end it didn’t matter. Testimony he insisted he never gave was used in court to help convict Bassène, a well-known…

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Tanzanian activist Maria Sarungi Tsehai attends a press conference after she was abducted and later released, in Nairobi, Kenya, January 13, 2025. REUTERS/Monicah Mwangi

Tanzanian journalist Maria Sarungi Tsehai briefly abducted in Kenya 

Nairobi, January 14, 2025– CPJ calls on the Kenyan government to conduct a comprehensive investigation after four unknown men assaulted and abducted prominent Tanzanian journalist and human rights activist Maria Sarungi Tsehai for about four hours on Sunday in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. “With attacks on dissidents living in exile in Nairobi and a…

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VPNs, training, and mental health workshops: How CPJ helped journalist safety in 2024

Haitian journalist Jean Marc Jean was covering an anti-government protest in Port-au-Prince in February 2024 when he was struck in the face by a gas canister fired by police into the crowd. One of at least five journalists injured while covering civil unrest in the country that month, Jean arrived at the hospital with a…

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Angolan journalists

CPJ, partners call on Angola to commit to press freedom during UN human rights review

The Committee to Protect Journalists and two Angola-based media rights organizations have made a joint submission to the United Nations Human Rights Council, calling on authorities in the southern African nation to improve its record on ensuring journalists’ safety and press freedom. The submission, dated July 16, 2024, was made ahead of Angola’s January 2025…

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The Dawn editor-in-chief Emmanuel Monychol Akop was arrested November 28 after he responded to a summons and his whereabouts have been unknown since. (Photo: Courtesy of The Dawn)

South Sudan editor Emmanuel Monychol Akop detained without charge by intelligence agents

Kampala, December 19, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on South Sudan’s authorities to reveal  the whereabouts of Emmanuel Monychol Akop, editor-in-chief of the privately owned The Dawn newspaper, who has been detained since November 28 by agents of the National Security Services (NSS), South Sudan’s intelligence agency. “South Sudanese authorities must bring editor Emmanuel Monychol Akop…

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Niger suspends BBC, announces a complaint against RFI

Dakar, December 13, 2024 – Nigerien authorities have suspended the publicly-funded British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for three months and announced the Nigerien government would bring a complaint of “incitement to genocide and inter-community massacre” against the French government-owned Radio France Internationale (RFI). “The Nigerien authorities should reverse their suspension of the BBC and their intentions to take legal action…

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