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More than 60 journalists jailed in Africa – CPJ report

Publish date: 27 January 2025
Issue Number: 1110
Diary: IBA Legalbrief Africa
Category: Media

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has exposed Angola, Cameroon, Eritrea, Egypt, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Tunisia in Africa as leading jailers of journalists in 2024. Malawi24 reports that the CPJ Census, published last week, found that Eritrea was the leading jailer in sub-Saharan Africa, with 16 journalists incarcerated between 2000 and 2005 still appearing on the 2024 survey. The census indicates that 67 journalists were jailed in Africa in connection with their work last year and most of them are facing anti-state, criminal defamation and false news charges. ‘In 2023, about 68 were jailed as compared to 57 of them in 2022. Journalists detained in Rwanda and Senegal speak of mistreatment behind bars, including beatings,’ the CPJ census reads. Many of the journalists in CPJ’s 2024 census have been sentenced to spend significant parts of their lives in jail, and 10 have been sentenced to life; one has been sentenced to death. A total of 54 are serving more than 10 years; 55 between five and 10 years, and 62 between one and five years. The census says those held in Eritrea include some of the longest-known cases of journalists imprisoned around the world; no charges against them have ever been disclosed. ‘Over the years, Eritrean officials have offered vague and inconsistent explanations for the journalists’ arrests, accusing them of involvement in anti-state conspiracies in connection with foreign intelligence, skirting military service and violating press regulations. Officials, at times, even denied that the journalists existed,’ the CPJ’s census notes. The CPJ also mention Egypt, and other countries in the census. The CPJ stated that Egypt used enforced disappearances – a crime under international law – to intimidate and silence journalists before detaining them.

Egypt allegedly violated its criminal procedure law with a two-year extension of the incarceration of Egyptian-British blogger Alaa Abdelfattah, who should have been released in September. ‘In Angola, Carlos Alberto was still in jail on 10 December despite becoming eligible for parole the previous month after his three-year sentence for criminal defamation was reduced to 27 months under a 2022 amnesty law,’ the CPJ said. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has found that Eritrean journalist Dawit Isaak, Rwandan journalist Théoneste Nsengimana and Palestinian journalists Mohammad Badr and Ameer Abu Iram are among those being held in violation of international law. On the other hand, in Senegal, a CPJ investigation found that René Capain Bassène was jailed for life for a crime that witnesses said he could not have committed. According to Malawi24, Tunisia uses a new cybercrime law to jail a record number of journalists; the CPJ census found. In Ethiopia, five of the six journalists held by authorities are facing terrorism charges after covering the ongoing conflict in Amhara; the maximum penalty, if convicted, is death. Cameroon and Rwanda each held five journalists, mostly on anti-state or false news charges and Senegal held one journalist. Nigeria is using a cybercrime law to prosecute its four imprisoned journalists for their reporting on alleged corruption. Burundi held one journalist, Sandra Muhoza, on CPJ’s census day. Her conviction on charges that included undermining the integrity of the national territory reflected a trend of anti-state charges against journalists in the East African nation.

Full Malawi24 report

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