Freedom of Expression in Africa Still in Trouble

Adv. Pansy Tlakula

Even though most of African nations ratified regional and international laws with ten African countries including Ethiopia adopting access to information laws, still the safety of journalists remains to be a major concern, says an official at the African Commission.

“Though ten African countries have so far adopted access to information laws, compliance to these laws still remains a concern,” said Adv. Pansy Tlakula, Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa at African Commission for Human and Peoples’ Right.

“A lot still remains to be done. The safety of journalists in Africa is still a concern. African states must promote a safe and enabling environment for journalists to operate independently,” she said this week during Carlos Cardoso Memorial’s lecture at Wits University in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Addressing ‘Power 2012 Reporting the African Investigative Journalism Conference’, she stressed that the current poor implementation of freedom of expression in Africa will not be improved if governments continue to ignore regional and international laws.

“...And the situation will not improve, if our governments will not allow independence of the judiciary and if our governments continue promoting the culture of secrecy.”

Carlos Cardoso is a Mozambique journalist assassinated on November 22, 2000 in the streets of Maputo while investigating a massive fraud at the country’s largest bank implicating leading political figures and their families.

Wits University hopes to undertake Memorial lecture of Carlos Cardoso every year in commemoration of its former student who was deported by the South African state in 1974 for supporting the Frelimo government in Mozambique.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), in 2012 a total of 50 journalists are killed globally including journalists from Somalia, Nigeria and Tanzania.

Out of 54 African nations only ten countries - Angola, Ethiopia, Uganda, Guinea, Liberia, Niger, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, South Africa and Tunisia have adopted access to information laws, according to Adv. Pansy Tlakula. Meanwhile the compliance to these laws at the international human rights standard is still a source of concern.

Forum of African Investigative Reporters, which has professional members from over 40 African countries, has organized the annual power reporting conference in collaboration with the University of Witwatersrand (Wits). While the financial sponsors of the conference includes the US State Department, which invited a dozen of US embassy employees in different African countries, the Valley Trust, Open Society Foundations, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Global Investigative Journalism Network, IRE and CIJ.

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