Twenty years after the Windhoek Declaration on press freedom

African journalists need
protection
By Mohamed Keita
Mohamed Keita is Africa Advocacy
Coordinator with <strong>the</strong> New York-based
Committee to Protect Journalists.
He regularly gives interviews to
international news media on press
freedom issues in Africa.
During <strong>the</strong> darkest moments of
<strong>the</strong> five-month crisis that followed
<strong>the</strong> disputed November 2010
presidential elections in Cote
D’Ivoire, a press card was, for many
Ivorian journalists, <strong>the</strong> worst item
that could be uncovered by querying
armed men at <strong>the</strong> myriad of
checkpoints dividing <strong>the</strong> main city
Abidjan into pockets loyal to ei<strong>the</strong>r
<strong>the</strong>n-President Laurent Gbagbo, or
his rival Alassane Ouattara.
The division of <strong>the</strong> Ivorian press
into rival partisan “blue” (Gbagbo)
and “green” (Ouattara) camps
meant that each side perceived
journalists as spies or militants of
<strong>the</strong> rival camp. Security risks typical
of an armed conflict confronted
journalists: threats, kidnappings,
intimidation, and even murder.
Today, frontline journalists working
in <strong>the</strong> streets of Douala, Harare,
Kampala, Lomé, and o<strong>the</strong>r places
face <strong>the</strong> most precarious security
risks, particularly those carrying
recording equipment. They are
vulnerable targets for security
forces determined to suppress what
are often compromising photos
and video footage showing deadly
Section 1: Freedom
brutality in <strong>the</strong>ir repression of
protests.
Photojournalists and videographers
frequently see <strong>the</strong>ir memory cards
seized and <strong>the</strong>ir cameras smashed,
or <strong>the</strong>y are forced to delete
images at gunpoint. This has been
happening despite much publicised
“media-sensitivity” or human rights
training of African security forces by
external military forces like those of
AFRICOM.
To add insult to injury, African leaders
regularly endanger <strong>the</strong> lives of
journalists by publicly demonising
<strong>the</strong> press for reporting local unrest,
likening such coverage to treason,
or incitement. President Yoweri
Museveni recently described media
reporting protests against rising
fuel prices as “enemies of Uganda’s
recovery,” while in Ethiopia Meles
Zenawi’s government jailed 15 editors
on anti-state charges including
treason over editorials criticising
<strong>the</strong> killing of demonstrators <strong>after</strong> a
disputed 2005 election.
The public nature of journalism
exposes media professionals to
incredible risks. Local journalists
covering local stories are particularly
vulnerable because <strong>the</strong>y lack <strong>the</strong>
sort of institutional and diplomatic
support protecting international
journalists.
In <strong>the</strong> battleground neighborhoods
of Abidjan, Ivorian journalists
running for <strong>the</strong>ir lives had no
one to turn to but <strong>the</strong>mselves.
With <strong>the</strong> country’s press unions
rendered moribund by <strong>years</strong> of
internal infighting, government
pressure and cynicism of <strong>the</strong>
senior journalists leading <strong>the</strong>m, a
breakaway organiser emerged in <strong>the</strong>
person of <strong>the</strong> energetic Stéphane
Media in Africa - 2011 | 59