Covid-19 and the escalating assault on press freedom across Southern Africa
By Tatenda Mazarura• 25 May 2021
With the world’s attention focused on combating Covid-19 governments in Southern Africa have taken advantage of the health crisis to escalate censorship, overlook or allow ill treatment of journalists and impose restrictions to silence free speech.
(Photo: medpagetoday.com/Wikipedia)
With the world’s attention focused on combating Covid-19 governments in southern Africa have taken advantage of the health crisis to escalate censorship, overlook or allow ill-treatment of journalists and impose restrictions to silence free speech. Journalists across southern Africa have been intimidated, threatened, fined, jailed, assaulted and even killed for doing their job.
Revised Windhoek Declaration Promotes Journalists Safety, Media’s Economic Viability And Internet Transparency
2 hours ago
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Carol Guensburg, Ndimyake Mwakalyelye
Gwen Lister co-chaired a 1991 journalism seminar in Windhoek, Namibia, whose participants produced an influential text calling for a free, independent and pluralistic press. The Windhoek Declaration led to World Press Freedom Day.
Thirty years ago, dozens of African journalists gathered at a conference in the then-new nation of Namibia to strategize how to better serve the public and minimize risks of their jobs.
“In Africa today … in many countries journalists, editors and publishers are victims of repression – they are murdered, arrested, detained and censored …” the journalists wrote in a document that denounced government controls and economic and political pressures.
Angolan Editor, Francisco Rasgado facing prison, $1.5 million damages in criminal defamation case
By Committee To Protect Journalists (CPJ) LISTEN
7 HOURS AGO
New York, April 30, 2021 – Angolan authorities should drop the criminal defamation and insult charges against editor Francisco Rasgado and reform the country s laws to decriminalize journalism, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
On April 23, police officers arrested Rasgado, the founder and director of the privately-owned newspaper Chela Press, at his home in the southern city of Benguela for his alleged failure to appear in court in connection to a criminal defamation and insult complaint by Rui Falcão, the secretary of information for the ruling People s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) party, according to media reports and the journalist and his lawyer, José Faria, both of whom spoke to CPJ in phone interviews.
Angolan Editor Francisco Rasgado Facing Prison, $1 5 Million Damages In Criminal Defamation Case thenigerianvoice.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thenigerianvoice.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.