In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Médard Ndinga Masakuba and François Mada, publisher and publication director, respectively, of the twice-weekly Kinshasa-based newspaper "La Manchette", were arrested, handcuffed and taken into custody at the Kinshasa/Kalamu High Court Prosecutor’s Office by six judicial police officers on 31 March. The two journalists spent the night at the Prosecutor’s Office’s detention facility and were questioned the next day by a judge over two articles that appeared in issues 661 and 662 of "La Manchette". The articles dealt with a conflict involving two tribal chiefs in the Bulungu territory, western Democratic Republic of Congo. The journalists were accused of making "damaging allegations" against Biba Ngola, one of two contenders to the Bulungu territory throne. Ngola was described as a "slave" in the articles. The journalists were released on 5 April.

  In the Ivory Coast, Fofana Mambé, a photojournalist with the privately-owned daily "Soir Info", was assaulted by demonstrators while interviewing a police officer on duty near a demonstration on 29 March in Abidjan. On the morning of 29 March, Mambé went to Abidjan’s Plateau district to cover a demonstration of police officers who were demanding payment of their "war bonuses" in front of the Internal Security Ministry building. The young officers were demanding that the government pay them the 45,000 CFA Franc (approx. US$90) bonus usually distributed twice monthly to front line combatants. The officers have not received their bonuses since August 2004. Just as Mambé was interviewing a police officer on duty near the demonstration, he was attacked by a group of demonstrators. According to a witness at the scene, about 50 demonstrators beat Mambé with belts and truncheons. He was taken to a local hospital, where he received seven stitches to the head.

  In Kenya, David Makali, the managing editor of the Sunday edition of the East African Standard was acquitted of criminal charges stemming from an investigative article about the alleged murder of Dr. Crispin Odhiambo Mbai, a key player in Kenya’s constitutional reform process on 5 April. Nairobi Chief Magistrate Aggrey Muchelule stated in his judgment that the case against Makali and John Chemweno - a police officer who was also charged - had not been established by the prosecution. In September 2003, two weeks after Mbai’s death, the newspaper published leaked excerpts of confessions made by suspects in the case, which was alleged by some to be a political assassination. As a result of the story, Makali was detained for two days and charged with stealing a police videotape that contained the confessions; the charge was later changed to theft of a copy of a tape and handling stolen property. The editor and two other journalists from the Standard said they were questioned by police and repeatedly asked to reveal their sources, which they refused to do. Makali and his newspaper’s management have consistently denied that he ever had a police videotape, claiming that the paper published its information from a transcript of recorded confessions.

- In Morocco, independent journalist and former newspaper owner Ali Lmrabet was banned from practicing journalism for ten years by a court on 14 April. The sentence comes just ten days before Lmrabet was expected to receive a license to publish a new satirical weekly, Demain Liberé. The charges against him stem from a lawsuit filed by the Association of Relatives of Saharawi Victims of Repression in response to an article that Lmrabet published in the Spanish daily El Mundo last November. Lmrabet was found guilty of defaming the pro-government group and ordered to pay 50,000 dirhams (US$5,825) in damages. In the article, Lmrabet referred to the Saharawi people in the Algerian city of Tindouf as refugees, contradicting the Moroccan government’s position that they are prisoners of the Polisario Front - a rebel movement that is fighting for the independence of the Western Sahara. Neither the Association of Relatives of Saharawi Victims of Repression nor its spokesman, Ahmed Khier, were mentioned in Lmbaret’s El Mundo article. Local journalists reportedly believe the organisation might have been created or revived in response to Lmrabet’s attempt to launch a newspaper since they were not familiar with the association prior to January, when Lmrabet first attempted to get a license to launch Demain Liberé. Throughout his career, Lmrabet has been harassed repeatedly for his criticisms of the Moroccan government. In May 2003, he was jailed and found guilty of "insulting the king" and "challenging the territorial integrity of the state" when his two weeklies, the now shuttered French-language Demain and the Arabic Douman, published articles and cartoons that lampooned the monarchy, as well as an interview with Abdullah Zaaza, an opponent of Morocco’s king, who called for the self-determination of the people of the Western Sahara. Lmrabet served nearly nine months of his three-year prison sentence but was released in January 2004 by a royal pardon.

  In Mozambique, two cameramen from the privately-owned Mozambican television channel STV were assaulted and had their equipment seized by a group of guards from a private security firm on 13 April. The journalists were filming randomly in the streets of the capital, Maputo. According to STV, the journalists were stopped and asked to cease filming because the guards were suspicious of their activities. "A team of our reporters was filming different settings of the city when, all of sudden, they were told to hand over their equipment," an STV representative said. The media workers refused to comply and were subsequently assaulted and had their equipment taken from them. Only when the police intervened was the equipment released. One of the cameras is reportedly damaged.

  In Niger, police closed the offices of the privately run Radio Alternative for one week on 30 March in the capital of Niamey. No reason was given for the closure, however staff at the station reportedly believe it may have been linked to the March 26 arrest of Moussa Tchangari, who directs the station’s parent company, the Alternative Media Group. Tchangari is a leading member of the "Coalition Against Costly Living," a group of civil society organisations that have protested the new tax through public demonstrations and a widely followed general strike. He was arrested and jailed after giving an interview to Radio France Internationale (RFI) on the coalition’s stance. He was released after over a week of detention, on 7 April. Tchangari and four other leaders of the civil society coalition are charged with threatening national security. The others had also been interviewed by local radio stations, and had urged religious leaders to pray in order to save the impoverished country from misery. A government spokesman told the UN’s IRIN news service that their statements constituted a "veiled call to rebellion." On March 24, Interior Minister Mounkaila Modi appeared on state-run television to warn journalists against covering the coalition’s activities. The announcement came two days after police in the western city of Zinder searched the offices of the privately owned broadcaster Radio Télévision Ténéré (RTT), and confiscated a videocassette containing footage of street protests against the tax. Radio Alternative was re-opened on 6 April.

  In Zimbabwe, the trial of British journalists Toby Harnden and Julian Simmonds, chief foreign correspondent and photographer of the Sunday Telegraph, opened on 5 April in the city of Norton, forty kilometres from the capital of Harare. The journalists were arrested on 31 March in Norton after being accused of covering the parliamentary elections without government accreditation. If convicted, Harnden and Simmonds risk a two-year jail term and a fine for working as journalists in Zimbabwe without being accredited by the Media and Information Commission (MIC) in terms of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA). The St