In a report entitled Backsliders, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) issued a list of the countries in which press freedom has most deteriorated worldwide over the past five years. The dishonor roll is headed by Ethiopia, where the government has launched a massive crackdown on the private press by closing newspapers and jailing editors. The African and North African nations of the Gambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Morocco, and Egypt are also among CPJ’s “backsliders” on press freedom.

“Democracy’s foothold in Africa is shallow when it comes to press freedom,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “These African nations, as diverse as they are, have won praise at times for their transition to democracy, but they are actually moving in reverse on press issues. Journalists are being jailed, attacked, and censored, a picture far worse than what we saw only a few years ago.”

  In Namibia, for the 13th consecutive year, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has unveiled its annual report entitled So this is Democracy? State of the Media in Southern Africa. The report states that the year 2006 was "a year of hard knocks." While its alerts last year showed an overall decrease in "conventional" media freedom violations in 11 southern African countries, such as physical attacks, arrests and detentions, criminal and civil defamation suits reportedly continue to rise. The Africa Media Barometer, an assessment tool in the southern African countries where MISA is active, also transmits bad news that none of the countries have a media landscape that rated as "predominantly free and independent." On 3 May this year, with the media in Zimbabwe facing their "darkest hour," MISA says the outlook is bleak for 2007.

  In Egypt, amendments to the constitution approved during a referendum in March were criticized by human rights groups as paving the way for a police state, which would allow increased monitoring of communications and surveillance of activists. In response, the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR), Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) and Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (HRinfo) will host an event on 3 May in Cairo to highlight the effects of the latest constitutional amendments on free expression. Held in collaboration with the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate (EJS), the annual event usually attracts a great deal of media attention, and has grown in significance with the harsh jail sentences imposed on journalists and bloggers this year.

  In Morocco, two IFEX members, the Observatoire de la Liberté de la Presse, de l’Edition et de la Création (OLPEC) of Tunisia and HRinfo, will meet with regional partners on 5 May for a conference on "New Media and Free Expression," to draw attention to free expression violations in North Africa. Last June, OLPEC and HRinfo joined advocacy groups from six North African countries to form a campaign and monitoring network, the Working Group on Press Freedom and Free Expression in North Africa (WGFENA). The Working Group was launched in Casablanca, Morocco by OLPEC, the National Press Union of Morocco and the Moroccan Human Rights Association.

  In Namibia, the minister for information and broadcasting announced that top management at the Namibia Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), the country’s national broadcaster, has taken the decision to change the format of the call-in program on national radio, according to a 30 April 2007 New Era newspaper report. The statement comes ten months after the current NBC director general went on air shortly after being appointed to the office to call on listeners and phone-in callers to "act responsibly."

The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Namibia strongly opposed any attempt to control or censor information in the public domain and categorically declares the proposal by the NBC management unhealthy for a growing democracy such as Namibia.

  On 27 April 2007, in Mauritania, Mohammed Ould Saleck, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Mutpêche, a credit union for fishermen in Mauritania, threatened to throw Isselmou Ould Mustapha, managing editor of Tahalil Hebdo, an independent weekly newspaper, into the sea for refusing to disclose a source of information.

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) reported that Saleck, who was not happy with allegations of corruption against Mutpêche published by Tahalil Hebdo, demanded that the journalist disclose the source of his information.

  In Zimbabwe, the government announced plans to revoke all NGO licenses. The state broadcaster Zimbabwe Television reported that the government’s decision to cancel all registration certificates of NGOs was to “sift out those seeking to force regime change in Zimbabwe.” Article 19 has condemned the move, stating it as “a clear violation of Zimbabwe’s human rights obligations under the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, particularly in respect to the right of freedom of expression and the right of freedom of assembly.”

Calling on the government not to proceed with the threatened cancellation, Article 19 has said that such a move will deepen the everyday suffering of Zimbabweans in the current severe socio-economic crisis, and worsen Zimbabwe’s reputation as a state which fails to uphold its obligations under the African Charter.

  In Ghana on 26 April 2007, reporter Kojo Hayford and cameraman Lord Asante Fordjour of TV3, an independent Accra-based television station, were reportedly mistreated by Raymond Gbegoah, coordinating director of Akuapem South District Assembly in the eastern region of Ghana. Gbegoah slapped Fordjour and insulted the two journalists before chasing them out of his office.

The MFWA correspondent reported that the incident occurred at the district office, where Hayford and Fordjour had gone to interview Gbegoah about a mountain of waste at a market in Nsawam, the district capital. Gbegoah, who was outraged by the filming of the garbage, accused the journalists of having bad motives and insinuated that the filming of the waste was intended to ridicule his administration and bring the image of the district into disrepute.

It was learned that, immediately following the incident, Gbegoah dispatched a team to remove the waste.

  In Burkina Faso, Sam K. Le Jah, a presenter at Ouga FM, a privately-owned radio station in Ouagadougou, received death threats on 18 April 2007 for allegedly criticising the administration of President Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso.

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) correspondent reported that the threat was communicated to the presenter in an e-mail titled: "You will be killed." The email reportedly ordered Jah to use his program to support the policies of President Compaoré, whom it claimed was a "divine blessing."

Jah hosts a reggae music program which is very popular among youth and which he uses to criticize the administration. Jah, a musician, also recently launched an album titled: "Thomas Sankara." Sankara, the former leader, was assassinated in a bloody coup d’état on 15 October 1987 led by President Compaoré.

Sources of the alerts:

Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
Article 19
International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX)
Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)
Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)