(RSF/IFEX) – The following is an RSF press release: PRESS RELEASE – For immediate release Paris, 30 March 2000 Africa – Europe Summit held under the aegis of the Organisation of African Unity and the European Union Cairo, 3 and 4 April 2000 Twenty-two countries at the Africa-Europe Summit do not respect press freedom Of […]
(RSF/IFEX) – The following is an RSF press release:
PRESS RELEASE – For immediate release
Paris, 30 March 2000
Africa – Europe Summit held under the aegis of the Organisation of African Unity and the European Union
Cairo, 3 and 4 April 2000
Twenty-two countries at the Africa-Europe Summit do not respect press freedom
Of the 53 African states taking part in the first Africa-Europe summit, 22 violate press freedom: Algeria, Angola, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Kenya, Libya, Mauritania, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Swaziland, Togo, Tunisia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Although the violations are not as serious in all the countries, what their governments have in common is the fact that they do not respect the African Charter for Human and Peoples’ Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. However, all 22 countries have signed and ratified at least one of those agreements.
Twenty-three journalists in jail in ten countries
Eight journalists are imprisoned in Ethiopia, making it the continent’s biggest prison for the profession. Four of them have been held since 1997. They were locked up for press crimes as well as for “taking part in a terrorist movement”, although they have still not been tried. They face sentences of 15 years if found guilty.
In Rwanda, Dominique Makeli, a journalist with Radio Rwanda, was arrested in 1994. Accused by the government of taking part in the genocide, he is being held at Kimironko prison, Kigali. Three other Rwandan journalists are in jail. None of them have had trials.
Two journalists are imprisoned in Egypt, one of them since 1993. The Emergency Law in force since 1981 is often used to silence journalists from the Islamic press. Furthermore, the press law makes offences such as libel subject to jail terms of up to two years.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Freddy Loseke was arrested on 31 December 1999 and kept in solitary confinement at a military prison for over two months before being moved to Kinshasa central jail. He is accused of reporting that a coup d’état was being plotted against President Laurent-Désiré Kabila. Another journalist is being held by the security services at Lubumbashi, in the south of the country.
Libya holds the shameful record for the world’s longest-serving prisoner: Abdullah Ali al-Sanussi has been held without being charged or tried since 1973.
Other journalists are in jail in Angola, Cameroon, Gabon, Nigeria and Tunisia.
More than 150 journalists arrested in less than 18 months
Since 1 January 1999, more than 150 journalists have been arrested and detained for varying lengths of time in the 22 countries mentioned above.
Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo alone have put more than 50 journalists behind bars. In Luanda, many have been kept in jail for several days, sometimes several weeks, for criticising President Eduardo dos Santos. Rafael Marques, for example, spent over a month in prison for saying that the president had a share of responsibility “in the destruction of the country and the encouragement of corruption”. About 100 journalists have been thrown into jail in Kinshasa for short or long-term periods since Laurent-Désiré Kabila took power in May 1997, often without explanation. Others have been ill-treated. Some have even been whipped, the number of lashes dolled out “in proportion to their age and weight”.
While the situation in Nigeria has improved compared to the dark days of Sani Abacha’s government, journalists are still frequent victims of police harassment. In 1999, about 20 were arrested and some were held for several days in various different states. Local authorities, who are less tolerant than the national government, do not hesitate to vent their wrath on the press.
In September 1999 Sudan’s President Omar Bashir launched numerous verbal attacks on the independent media, accusing them of “serving the party of Satan, atheists and agents of the opposition”. The number of journalists arrested is rising: six since the start of 2000.
In Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe, journalists have also been locked up by the authorities in connection with their work. All have since been released on bail, although they still face charges. They may be re-arrested at any time and sentenced to prison terms.
Two journalists were arrested in Togo in 1999, and were kept in jail for more than a month, accused of “publishing false information”. Togo has also reinstated prison sentences for press crimes. It had been one of the few countries in Africa to have replaced jail terms with suspended sentences or fines.
Fifteen journalists murdered since 1 January 1999
Ten journalists died in Sierra Leone in 1999. Although the government cannot be blamed for the killings, no serious inquiries have been made to try to track down and punish those responsible. Eight journalists were murdered by rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), which now holds power. Another journalist, Abdul Juma Jalloh, was shot dead on 2 February by soldiers from the West African peacekeeping force Ecomog. The tenth, Conrad Roy of the weekly Expo Times, died in Lakka hospital on 26 April 1999. He had been held since February 1998 after being accused of “complicity with the rebels”. According to various sources, the authorities refused to give him the medical drugs he needed and prevented his family from helping him. Despite requests from several international organisations, the authorities have never offered any explanation of the circumstances in which he died.
Norbert Zongo, editor of the weekly L’Indépendant, in Burkina Faso, was found dead, along with three other people, in a burnt-out vehicle 60 miles south of Ouagadougou on 13 December 1998. On 7 May 1999, an independent inquiry committee confirmed that the journalist had been murdered, and said the motives should be sought in his investigative reporting. In particular, he had been looking into the death of David Ouedraogo, who was the chauffeur for the president’s brother, François Compaoré. The commission’s report named six members of the presidential guard “serious suspects”. But as of 1 April 2000, none of the soldiers had been questioned in connection with the murder, and the president’s brother had still not been interviewed by the examining magistrate in charge of the case.
Four other journalists died in 1999 in Nigeria and Angola.
Newspapers suspended or forced to stop publishing
In many countries, journalists are under pressure from the government. In Gabon, several have chosen to leave the country to avoid imprisonment, leading to the disappearance of two satirical newspapers, La Griffe and La Cigale Enchantée.
The remaining opposition newspapers in Djibouti were suspended in 1999, and on 1 April 2000, only the government daily La Nation was still being published. In Equatorial Guinea, there is still no sign of the two private newspapers given official permission to publish in 1999. The only alternative to government news sources is to listen to foreign radio stations. In Swaziland the closure of the daily Swazi Observer in February 2000 was a sign of the king’s stranglehold on his country’s media. Only the government daily and state-run radio and television are now available.
The situation in North Africa is no better. Press freedom simply does not exist in Tunisia. Both state-run and private newspapers are subject to censorship, even when they are dealing with subjects that bear no relation to power struggles in the government, such as the environment and the country’s cultural heritage. The few journalists who show an inkling of independence, like the correspondent with the French daily La Croix, Taoufik Ben Brick, pay a high price: his phone line was cut, his passport was confiscated and he was continually followed by the police. In Algeria, the effective state monopolies on printing and advertising are ways of putting pressure on private media. It is not unusual for the four state-owned printing works to demand immediate payment of a newspaper’s debts if it has published articles regarded as over-critical. In both countries, foreign journalists find it very difficult to go about their work – even when they are lucky enough to be granted visas. Some foreign publications are frequently missing from the newsstands of Tunis and Algiers.
In Mauritania, the government is quick to gag the independent press, using article 11 of the press law under which a publication may be banned if it “attacks the principles of Islam or the credibility of the state”. Three newspapers were temporarily suspended in 1999.
Recommendations
Reporters Sans Frontières asks the governments of the countries concerned – Angola, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Libya, and Rwanda – to release journalists who have been jailed for press crimes. The organisation calls for the journalists held in Tunisia and Rwanda to be given fair trials.
Reporters Sans Frontières also asks the heads of state and government in the 22 countries mentioned above to do everything in their power to put a stop to the arbitrary arrest of journalists. Members of the profession were arrested in almost all those countries during 1999 or 2000. Some spent several weeks in prison, often without being tried.
Reporters Sans Frontières calls on the 19 countries that flout press freedom even though they have ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to respect their commitments. We urge Djibouti, Mauritania and Swaziland to ratify the covenant.
Reporters Sans Frontières asks the 15 member countries of the European Union and the 53 countries in Africa which still maintain it in their legislation, to abolish any clauses that provide for prison sentences for press crimes, except where they involve propaganda encouraging warfare or calls to national, racial or religious hatred.
Finally, Reporters Sans Frontières calls on the heads of state and government of the 15 member countries of the European Union to ensure that press freedom should be effectively taken into account in any future cooperation agreements between the EU and African countries.
