Cameroon must investigate jailed editor’s death – Committee to Protect Journalists.

President Isaias Afwerki has turned Eritrea into Africa’s “biggest prison for the media” since 2001 and four journalists have died in captivity, Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on Monday. Eritrea, which RSF ranks as the worst abuser of media freedom in the world, permits no independent media and the state-run newspapers and television network do not allow stories that challenge the nation’s leadership or its policies.

Read more from Reuters here: Eritrea is Africas “biggest prison for media”: RSF | Eritrean News – assenna.

Based in Washington DC, Radio Free Asia (RFA), founded in 1996, was sponsored by Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) to receive permanent broadcasting status.  Senator’s Lugar legislation was introduced on March 12, 2010.  Without this legislation, Radio Free Asia’s broadcast authority, under the current law, would have expired on September 30, 2010.  The legislation known as S.3104 was co-sponsored by Senators Inouye (D-HI), Franken (D-MN) and Kaufman (D-DE).   The initiators of the legislation however, were Representatives Ed Royce (R-CA) and  Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) who introduced an amendment to the United States Broadcasting Act of 1994, to extend Radio Free Asia’s broadcasting authority by one year.  The amendment known as H.R. 3592 was introduced to the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs on September 17, 2009, after which it was supported by Senator Lugar and his colleagues.  Instead of its original intent, however, the US Senate decided to propose law permanently authorizing Radio Free Asia’s operation in the United States.

Having cleared the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives H.R. 3593 is now on its way to President Obama’s desk for ratification.  Following ratification, Radio Free Asia will be able to continue its objective and mission which is “to provide accurate and timely news and information to Asian countries whose governments prohibit access to a free press.”

Here’s some sample content from Radio Free Asia:

As Radio Free Asia becomes “permanent”, we might ask congress: Why no Radio Free Africa?

Sources:

The Library of Congress Online

Sourcews

Senator Richard G. Lugar’s Senate’s Website

Radio Free Asia

L. ex Africa semper aliquid novi, Pliny, the Elder was right “There is always something new from Africa.”  Mobile phones usage in Africa continue
to break new barriers. Africa was the first continet where mobile phone users outnumbered the number of fixed telephone line (landlines).

It is estimated that where only 2% of Africans were using mobile phones in 2000, 28% have cell phones today. Although a Harvard university blog shows the mobile phone penetration in Africa to be a mere 40% , it is remarkable to note that mobile/cell phone access  may exceed access to electricity in several Sub-Sarahan Africa.

Sub-Sarahan Africa has an extimated total population of 738 million people. Out of these, 547 million have no access to electricity. Therefore, less than 26 percent of the Sub-Sarahan Africans have electricity compared to the 28 percent that have access to mobile phones.  Burkina Faso and Kenya are among the African countries where there is greater access to mobile phones than electricity.

Percentage of Population with Access to Cell Towers:
Burkina Faso – 10.9%; Uganda – 13.58%; Kenya – 30.48%; Angola – 15%; Mozambique – 15.42%; Nigeria – 27.28; Ghana – 32.39 (source).

Percentage of Population with Access to Electricity:
Burkina Faso – 7%; Uganda – 8.9%; Kenya – 14%; Angola – 15%; Mozambique – 6.3%; Nigeria – 46.0 and Ghana – 49.2% (source).

Rwanda defends suspension of two newspapers; watchdog critical| Reuters.

Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF.org) slammed the 6-month suspension, saying it was designed to silence media critics.

“This decision clearly aims to gag Rwanda’s main sources of independent news in the run-up to the August 2010 presidential election,” RSF said in a statement Wednesday.

“It suppresses all critical journalism and deprives Rwandans of an alternative to the state newspapers,” RSF added.

Freedom of speech remains a delicate issue in a country where corruption of the media and the political endorsement of ethnic hatred during the early 1990s led to genocide, following years of dictatorship.

Rwanda’s Media High Council said the decision to suspend the Umuseso and Umuvugizi newspapers (shown above) was based on their erroneous content.

“We are acting on the basis of the content of the publications. Elections are months away,” said Patrice Mulama, Executive Secretary of Media High Council.

“This is not the first time we are suspending Umuseso for inciting the public. We suspended this paper in 2004 and 2009,” he said. “We are challenging the professionalism of these papers and we have a firm ground to explain the case at hand to court.”

(Editing by Richard Lough and Simon Cameron-Moore)