East African countries leading in press freedom violation according to International Press Institute (IPI)
In July 2023, the IPI global network monitoring press freedom violations in sub-Saharan Africa recorded 80 incidents in 17 countries. During the month under review, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) recorded the highest number of incidents, followed by Kenya, Uganda, and Zimbabwe, which recorded 8 incidents each, and Gabon, with five incidents.
These incidents included physical attacks, arrests, detention of journalists and censorship. In DRC a total of 17 incidents were reported, 9 involved male journalists. It was suspected that some of these violations were perpetrated by government sympathisers.
In Kenya, 12 assaults were reported making it the second highest in this case, 10 of these victims were male and 2 were female. These reports were majorly reported during the anti-government protest that took place in this month. More violations were reported, like in one instance. It was reported that a police disguised himself as a reporter, just to arrest protestors. The act was condemned as “endangering the lives of journalists in the line of duty” and “a grave unprofessional misconduct on the part of the police”.
Kenya's neighbour Uganda was no. 3 on the list with 8 violations reported. Uganda media has been fighting with government advertising agencies. This is because the Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Treasury (PSST), Ramathan Ggoobi, directed the government accounting officers to stop advertising with privately owned media – an example of how officials can use state advertising to punish critical media.
Though Ethiopia and Sudan did not top on the list, they were also reports from the countries. Sudan due to the political unrest and war that is going on, journalists have had to seek refuge in neighbouring countries, this was according to one of the monthly convenings conducted by the Eastern Africa Editors Society. The Sudanese journalists' syndicate revealed the harsh conditions journalists have to work through just to cover the war.
In most cases, the perpetrators of these violations are state actors, with the police/state security emerging as the top violators of press freedom.
By Muhia Robert
