|
The Press at the Forefront of Democracy in Liber...
By Dave Peterson The Press Union of Liberia (PUL) has fought for press freedom in Africa as long or longer than just about any other civil society organization on the continent. Founded in 1964, it claims a membership of more than 500 journalists. Abdullai Kamara, the PUL’s president for the past ... |
|
State of Emergency in Ethiopia curtails Media Fr...
By Simegnish Yekoye A year after the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), together with its allies, claimed a 100 percent of the seats in the May 2015 parliamentary elections, the country declared a state of emergency for the first time in 25 years. The government that Presid... |
|
The International Community in Ethiopia is Wrong...
There is a common perception in the international diplomatic community in Addis Ababa that putting public pressure on the Ethiopian government to improve human rights and other basic democratic freedoms is likely to backfire. Ethiopia’s current government—which has been strongly influenced by Et... |
|
Empowering Girls Online: ICTs and Young Women in...
By Nyaradzo Mashayamombe Internet connectivity in Sub-Saharan Africa has grown quickly over the past couple of years. In my country of Zimbabwe, for example, by 2015, 48 percent of the population had internet access according to the Postal and Telecommunications Regulation Authority of Zimbabwe (PO... |
|
What recent protests in the Democratic Republic ...
When people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) took to Twitter in June to protest skyrocketing internet and mobile data prices, it was only the latest in a series of struggles between Congolese netizens and the government over internet policy. On May 17, netizens in the DRC were shocked t... |
|
Distorting the News in Africa: How Dictators Hav...
By Elie Smith In response to the influence of Western media in their countries, African dictators have ramped up nationalistic and pan-African propaganda through government-sponsored media. These media outlets spend their time either painting an overly rosy picture of the situation in Africa, or att... |
|
Promoting access to ICTs in Africa: Enhancing Po...
By Ateki Seta Caxton Editor’s Note: This week the Web We Want initiative of the World Wide Web Foundation is sponsoring the F.A.S.T. Africa: Full Internet for All week of action. The goal is to raise awareness about the need for high speed Internet throughout Africa. CIMA supports efforts to addre... |
|
Social Media Throws Republic of Congo’s Presid...
By Elie Smith Editor’s Note: On Saturday March 19th the Ministry of the Interior of the Congo ordered telecommunications companies to cut all mobile phone, text message, and Internet service for at least 48 hours in order to prevent “illegal” reporting of election results. The pe... |
|
Talking the Talk but Failing to Walk the Walk : ...
By Lamii Kpargoi On July 21, 2012, six months after receiving her second six-year mandate, President Ellen Sirleaf signed the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers’ (WAN-IFRA) Declaration of Table Mountain, which seeks to abolish insult laws and criminal defamation across Africa. The... |
|
The Growing Trend Toward Criminalizing Free Spee...
By Lamii Kpargoi Over the last two decades, many African countries have progressed from repressive governance, including suppressing dissenting opinion, to democracy, opening some space for freedom of expression. Thirteen countries, including Sierra Leone, Tunisia, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Nigeri... |