BARD AI
JF-Expert Member
- Jul 24, 2018
- 3,376
- 8,118
Ripoti mpya iliyotolewa na Kamati ya Kulinda Waandishi wa Habari (CPJ) imeonesha idadi ya Waandishi wa Habari waliofungwa Jela kutokana na Majukumu yao, imeongezeka kutoka 31 kwa mwaka 2022 hadi 47 mwaka 2023.
Nchi ya Eritrea inaongoza kwa kufunga Waandishi wengi wapatao 16 huku ikishikilia nafasi ya 7 duniani ikifuatiwa na Misri yenye Waandishi 13 wenye kesi za muda mrefu za Waandishi wa Habari waliofungwa bila kufunguliwa mashtaka yoyote.
Nchi nyingine zilizofunga Waandishi wa Habari ni Ethiopia, Cameroon, Rwanda, Jamhuri ya Kidemokrasia ya Congo, Zambia, Angola, Burundi, Senegal, Madagascar na Nigeria.
==============
The war in Gaza and the plight of Palestinian journalists have taken the world’s focus away from Africa where more journalists are being jailed, according to a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The world’s attention has been on Gaza since the 7 October 2023 Hamas assault on Israel and the ensuing bombardment of the Gaza Strip, leading to the killing and jailing of Palestinian journalists. In its latest census of journalists jailed around the globe as of 1 December 2023, press freedom watchdog CPJ ranked Israel as the joint sixth-biggest jailer of journalists, alongside Iran and behind China, Myanmar, Belarus, Russia and Vietnam.
According to the report, there were 17 Palestinian reporters held in Israeli jails on 1 December, compared to one in the previous year.
“Overall, Israel has detained more than 20 journalists since the war began, but those released before 1 December or held after that date are not included in the 2023 census,” CPJ said.
Israel’s status as one of the world’s worst jailers of journalists has been grabbing the headlines given that the Israel-Gaza war continues to dominate the global news agenda. CPJ’s Africa programme coordinator Angela Quintal says: “In the process, the plight of detained journalists in Africa has largely been ignored, in much the same way that the conflicts and resultant humanitarian crises in several African countries hardly get global attention.”
Disturbing trend
In Africa, the CPJ report listed Eritrea – with 16 journalists in jail – as the world’s seventh-worst jailer of journalists and the worst on the continent. Journalists held in Eritrea include some of the longest-known cases of journalists imprisoned around the world; none has ever been charged.
In sub-Saharan Africa, according to the report, the number of journalists jailed on 1 December rose to 47 from 31 in 2022 and 30 in 2021, with Ethiopia (8) and Cameroon (6) ranking as the second and third-worst in the region. CPJ said the number of jailed Ethiopian journalists reflects the difficult environment for the media in Ethiopia.
Despite the 2022 signing of a peace agreement that ended two years of civil war, parts of Ethiopia remain restive and conflict is raging in the country’s Amhara State between regional militia and federal forces. The eight journalists in CPJ’s census were arrested in 2023 after covering this conflict.
They know the world isn’t watching and probably doesn’t care
The CPJ snapshot also highlighted media crackdowns in Senegal, Zambia, Angola and Madagascar. Senegal, which has five journalists jailed, has only appeared on the census twice previously – 2008 and 2022 – with one jailed journalist in those years. The DRC, Zambia, Angola, Burundi and Nigeria all had one journalist listed in 2023. Madagascar, appearing for the first time on the census, also held one journalist.
The case of Stanis Bujakera Tshiamala
In the DRC, Stanis Bujakera Tshiamala, a correspondent for our sister publication Jeune Afrique, Reuters and deputy director of the news site Actualite, who has more than 570,000 followers on X, has been languishing in a communal cell in Kinshasa’s notorious Makala prison.
He was imprisoned following the publication of an article by Jeune Afrique’s Paris-based editorial team implicating Congolese military intelligence in the assassination of a former minister turned opposition figure, Chérubin Okende.
Stanis, in jail for over four months now, has been charged under a combined application of the penal code and a digital code, passed earlier in 2023, and press law enabling DRC authorities to prosecute and imprison journalists for sharing “false news” and for sharing information electronically.
The charges brought against Stanis underscored concerns about the ongoing criminalisation of journalism, CPJ said.
Last week, a hundred intellectuals, writers, journalists and activists including Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka and philosopher Achille Mbembe, signed a petition calling for Stanis’ immediate release from jail.
For CPJ, the lack of global attention on the plights of Stanis and all other journalists in African jails has sent a disturbing signal to the African leaders.
“It is unsurprising that some of the leaders and autocrats on our continent are emboldened. They know the world isn’t watching and probably doesn’t care,” Quintal tells The Africa Report. “The bottom line is: one journalist in jail, is one journalist too many, wherever they are in the world. No journalist should be in jail for their work.”
THE AFRICAN REPORT/ CPJ
Nchi ya Eritrea inaongoza kwa kufunga Waandishi wengi wapatao 16 huku ikishikilia nafasi ya 7 duniani ikifuatiwa na Misri yenye Waandishi 13 wenye kesi za muda mrefu za Waandishi wa Habari waliofungwa bila kufunguliwa mashtaka yoyote.
Nchi nyingine zilizofunga Waandishi wa Habari ni Ethiopia, Cameroon, Rwanda, Jamhuri ya Kidemokrasia ya Congo, Zambia, Angola, Burundi, Senegal, Madagascar na Nigeria.
==============
The war in Gaza and the plight of Palestinian journalists have taken the world’s focus away from Africa where more journalists are being jailed, according to a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The world’s attention has been on Gaza since the 7 October 2023 Hamas assault on Israel and the ensuing bombardment of the Gaza Strip, leading to the killing and jailing of Palestinian journalists. In its latest census of journalists jailed around the globe as of 1 December 2023, press freedom watchdog CPJ ranked Israel as the joint sixth-biggest jailer of journalists, alongside Iran and behind China, Myanmar, Belarus, Russia and Vietnam.
According to the report, there were 17 Palestinian reporters held in Israeli jails on 1 December, compared to one in the previous year.
“Overall, Israel has detained more than 20 journalists since the war began, but those released before 1 December or held after that date are not included in the 2023 census,” CPJ said.
Israel’s status as one of the world’s worst jailers of journalists has been grabbing the headlines given that the Israel-Gaza war continues to dominate the global news agenda. CPJ’s Africa programme coordinator Angela Quintal says: “In the process, the plight of detained journalists in Africa has largely been ignored, in much the same way that the conflicts and resultant humanitarian crises in several African countries hardly get global attention.”
Disturbing trend
In Africa, the CPJ report listed Eritrea – with 16 journalists in jail – as the world’s seventh-worst jailer of journalists and the worst on the continent. Journalists held in Eritrea include some of the longest-known cases of journalists imprisoned around the world; none has ever been charged.
In sub-Saharan Africa, according to the report, the number of journalists jailed on 1 December rose to 47 from 31 in 2022 and 30 in 2021, with Ethiopia (8) and Cameroon (6) ranking as the second and third-worst in the region. CPJ said the number of jailed Ethiopian journalists reflects the difficult environment for the media in Ethiopia.
Despite the 2022 signing of a peace agreement that ended two years of civil war, parts of Ethiopia remain restive and conflict is raging in the country’s Amhara State between regional militia and federal forces. The eight journalists in CPJ’s census were arrested in 2023 after covering this conflict.
They know the world isn’t watching and probably doesn’t care
The CPJ snapshot also highlighted media crackdowns in Senegal, Zambia, Angola and Madagascar. Senegal, which has five journalists jailed, has only appeared on the census twice previously – 2008 and 2022 – with one jailed journalist in those years. The DRC, Zambia, Angola, Burundi and Nigeria all had one journalist listed in 2023. Madagascar, appearing for the first time on the census, also held one journalist.
The case of Stanis Bujakera Tshiamala
In the DRC, Stanis Bujakera Tshiamala, a correspondent for our sister publication Jeune Afrique, Reuters and deputy director of the news site Actualite, who has more than 570,000 followers on X, has been languishing in a communal cell in Kinshasa’s notorious Makala prison.
He was imprisoned following the publication of an article by Jeune Afrique’s Paris-based editorial team implicating Congolese military intelligence in the assassination of a former minister turned opposition figure, Chérubin Okende.
Stanis, in jail for over four months now, has been charged under a combined application of the penal code and a digital code, passed earlier in 2023, and press law enabling DRC authorities to prosecute and imprison journalists for sharing “false news” and for sharing information electronically.
The charges brought against Stanis underscored concerns about the ongoing criminalisation of journalism, CPJ said.
Last week, a hundred intellectuals, writers, journalists and activists including Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka and philosopher Achille Mbembe, signed a petition calling for Stanis’ immediate release from jail.
For CPJ, the lack of global attention on the plights of Stanis and all other journalists in African jails has sent a disturbing signal to the African leaders.
“It is unsurprising that some of the leaders and autocrats on our continent are emboldened. They know the world isn’t watching and probably doesn’t care,” Quintal tells The Africa Report. “The bottom line is: one journalist in jail, is one journalist too many, wherever they are in the world. No journalist should be in jail for their work.”
THE AFRICAN REPORT/ CPJ
