Twenty years after the Windhoek Declaration on press freedom

Goué, an upstart photojournalist
popular for negotiating a deal for
free phone calls between journalists
on <strong>the</strong> network of a local telecom
company.
Goué launched <strong>the</strong> Ivorian
Committee to Protect Journalists
(CIPJ) in 2010 and in March 2011, he
organised <strong>the</strong> evacuation of a dozen
of his colleagues from Abidjan <strong>after</strong>
he himself came under threats for
publicly speaking out against media
abuses. Goué sought <strong>the</strong> help of
UN peacekeepers on <strong>the</strong> ground,
to secure evacuation of stranded
journalists through an airlift from
<strong>the</strong> city. It was <strong>the</strong>n that <strong>the</strong>
Committee to Protect Journalists
based in <strong>the</strong> USA intervened, as an
external pressure group, to expedite
<strong>the</strong> evacuation and sensitise <strong>the</strong> UN
leadership that journalists should be
a top priority in <strong>the</strong> broad mandate
of protection of civilians.
“In Cameroon in
2010, journalist
Germain Cyrille
Ngota died in prison
<strong>after</strong> his arrest over
<strong>the</strong> sources of a
purportedly leaked
document alleging
corruption at <strong>the</strong>
state oil company.“
The protection of journalists
entails shielding <strong>the</strong>ir confidential
sources, particularly those acting as
whistleblowers who hold institutions
to <strong>the</strong>ir promise of accountability
and transparency. But security forces
frequently seize journalists’ mobile
phones, an essential reporting
tool, or indubitably put pressure
on telecom companies to illegally
obtain phone records of journalists,
60 | Media in Africa - 2011
for <strong>the</strong> purpose of identifying <strong>the</strong>ir
sources.
There are also efforts made to dissuade
sources from coming forward.
In Kenya, journalists defeated a bill
in 2007 that would have forced
<strong>the</strong>m to reveal sources in court,
but <strong>the</strong>ir colleagues in South Africa
have been battling a “secrecy
bill,” pushed by <strong>the</strong> ruling ANC, that
initially threatened to impose a 20year
jail sentence on journalists and
whistleblowers who exposed official
documents. In Cameroon in 2010,
journalist Germain Cyrille Ngota
died in prison <strong>after</strong> his arrest over
<strong>the</strong> sources of a purportedly leaked
document alleging corruption at
<strong>the</strong> state oil company.
As more and more African journalists
join bloggers and citizen journalists
on <strong>the</strong> internet, many are largely
unprepared for <strong>the</strong> state-sponsored
dangers and censorship that lurk
online. Cyber security is a constantly
evolving, but it is becoming part
of <strong>the</strong> vital toolkit for new media
professionals who report news from
places like Ethiopia, Rwanda, and
Zimbabwe.