All over the world there are a multitude of causes that are celebrated and honored on different days throughout the year. In Africa, World Press Freedom Day (on 3 May) is one that carries an exceptional weight. Prominent journalists from across the continent from South Africa to Tunisia, spoke to RAP 21 on what this day signifies in their country.

Journalist Clifford Derrick from Kenya, now exiled in South Africa, spoke of the need to refocus 3 May into a new vein that accounts more for the journalists working in oft-brutal conditions. Omar Belhouchet, an eminent publisher from Algeria, discussed widening the fight for press freedom to be all-inclusive in the country. South African media veteran Janine Lazarus talked about the incongruence between law and practice. Zimbabwean journalist Geoffrey Nyarota, now based in the United States, examined the possibilities for change. Tunisian journalist and freedom of expression advocate Sihem Bensedrine emphasized the importance to take stock on 3 May and define means to achieve the right to a free press.

In the week before World Press Freedom Day the Tunisian weekly opposition newspaper Al-Mawkif is faced with the possibility of having to cease publication after 23 years. Post-publication censorship and charges of spreading false news and defamation have manifested in exorbitant fines and severe financial losses. Managing editor Nejib Chebbi and editor Rachid Khechana, of the Progressive Democratic Party’s (PDP) newspaper, spoke to RAP 21 on the long battle ahead of them.

The Al-Mawkif staff is standing unbowed to the series of obstacles they face; Chebbi is running in near quicksand against incumbent President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in the country’s 2009 elections and Kchechana and his colleague, Mongi Ellouze are on a hunger strike.