Media Rights Agenda (MRA)

If adopted, a new law will allow the Somali government to establish a statutory media regulatory body – the Somali Media Commission – by nominating, approving and appointing its 9 members, and compromising its independence.

On the one-year anniversary of the death of popular Cambodian activist Kem Ley, civil society organisations from around the world reiterated their call for an independent inquiry.

AFEX deplores the increasing incidents of killings, physical attacks, arbitrary arrests and detentions, threats and harassment of journalists, media professionals and activists in Africa as a threat towards the enjoyment of free expression and the ultimate development of the continent.

Silenced politicians in Kenya and Rwanda, Tanzanian taboos and Nigerian “threats to the state”. This and much more from South Sudan, Togo and Côte d’Ivoire in our June round-up of free expression news.

Narrating his ordeal, journalist Charles Otu said: “They accused me of being a threat to the state government and threatened to silence me unless I signed a written undertaking never to write anything against the state government.”

What could cause a government to block the internet to specific regions for three months? In Cameroon’s case, it was a conflict over the imposition of the French language in anglophone areas.

The African Freedom of Expression Exchange has petitioned the African Union Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information to intervene in the deteriorating freedom of expression situation in the two Anglophone regions of Cameroon.

Unidentified gunmen shot and killed Famous Giobaro on 16 April 2017 at his residence in Yenagoa, a local government area in the Bayelsa State of Nigeria.