17 March 2005

Worst for reporters: Eritrea

15/03/2005 13:16 - (SA)

Washington - Africa's worst violators of press freedom in 2004 were Eritrea, Zimbabwe, Equatorial Guinea and Rwanda, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists in its annual Attacks on the Press report released Monday in Washington.

The New York-based group said that Eritrea "remained Africa's worst jailer of journalists, with 17 held in secret prisons". Many were detained without trial for more than three years, amidst torture and "appalling conditions", the report said.

The New York-based group said that Eritrea "remained Africa's worst jailer of journalists, with 17 held in secret prisons". Many were detained without trial for more than three years, amidst torture and "appalling conditions", the report said.

Eritrea has banned the entire private press since 2001, the report noted.

"Zimbabwe's regime seems bent on the same goal," the report said. "President Robert Mugabe's government has used repressive legislation to shutter the country's only independent newspaper, The Daily News, as well as to detain and harass dozens of independent journalists."

Publishing 'false' information

With Zimbabwe elections coming up this month, a new law was passed that threatens journalists with up to 20 years in jail for publishing or communicating "false" information deemed prejudicial to the state.

The autonomous Tanzanian island of Zanzibar has kept the only independent newspaper there "shuttered for more than a year", the report said. In Ethiopia, the government "continues to use criminal laws to intimidate independent journalists" and managed to divide and weaken the only independent journalists organization, EFJA.

Two journalists were killed on the continent last year - in Gambia, where "veteran journalist and press freedom activist Deyda Hydara" was killed in a drive-by shooting; and in Ivory Coast, where reporter Antoine Masse was fatally shot while covering violent clashes between French peacekeeping troops and demonstrators in the western town of Duekoue.

"Radio remains the most popular and accessible medium in most African countries and is therefore the most sensitive," the report said, and even countries with relatively open attitudes toward the press - like Uganda, Namibia and South Africa - "have sought to influence radio programming, especially at politically sensitive times".

Globally, 56 journalists were killed in 2004, including 36 journalists who were murdered, CPJ said. Twenty-three of the deaths occurred in Iraq. - dpa

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