Voice of America (VOA) began satellite broadcasts of its Amharic-language programs to Ethiopia this week after Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi ordered that VOA’s broadcasts be blocked. The prime minister told reporters on 18 March that VOA was broadcasting “destabilizing propaganda” and that he had ordered the broadcasts to be blocked, Reuters reported. Zenawi said […]

A Somali journalist was ordered by an Al Shabab court to leave the port city of Kismayo within 36 hours on Monday, local sources told IPI today. Mohamed Salad Abdulle, a reporter with Bardera-based Markabley Radio and other Somali broadcasters, including Somaliweyn radio, was detained in Kismayo on 15 March, IPI reported at the time. […]

International human rights organisation, Human Rights Watch, was prohibited by government officials from holding a press conference in Tunisia on Wednesday, 24 March.  The organisation was due to launch its report “A Larger Prison: Repression of Former Political Prisoners in Tunisia.” In a statement sent to the Tunisia Monitoring Group – a coalition of 20 […]

An amendment to the Ugandan Press and Journalist Law presently before the Ugandan cabinet contains a number of deeply troubling provisions that, if made into law, would severely inhibit the media environment and do considerable damage to the reputation of Uganda in the eyes of the international community. The Press and Journalist (Amendment) Bill 2010 […]