Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)

On 14 March, security forces in Togo prevented a group of journalists from staging a demonstration. The journalists were protesting a law that makes it easier for the media regulatory body to impose sanctions on the media.

On 12 March, Togolese media staged a nationwide news blackout to protest legislation granting the media regulatory body discretionary powers to impose sanctions on the media without recourse to judicial processes.

Nii Martey Botwe and Vincent Dzatse were attacked by security officials while covering Ghana’s 56th independence anniversary ceremony.

Four journalists belonging to privately-owned media organisations were physically attacked by police officers who disrupted a peace march organised by members of the Educational Unions’ Permanent Consultation and Action Framework.

The Togolese Parliament has passed a new law granting the media regulatory body discretionary powers to impose sanctions on the media without recourse to judicial processes.

Côte d’Ivoire’s statutory press regulatory body has suspended Prestige Mag, a privately-owned weekly magazine, for eight editions, accusing it of publishing offensive articles.

A reporter had his equipment seized for taking photos of an eviction order carried out by police in Freetown. One officer told the journalist he would have dealt with him fatally if he weren’t in uniform.

In a letter to Gambian president Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh, a group of organization calls for and end to the harassment of Abdoublie John. Since December 2012, The National Intelligence Agency has twice arbitrarily detained John, editor of the online news website Jollof News and a contributor to The Associated Press.