RadioFreeAfrica.org

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

Dave — Wed, 05 May 2010 18:51:44 +0000

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

April 25, 2010

H.E. Paul Biya
President of the Republic of Cameroon
Yaoundé, Cameroon

Via facsimile: (237) 22 20 33 06

Dear President Biya,

Following Thursday’s death of newspaper editor Germain S. Ngota Ngota, whose health deteriorated while he was incarcerated in Kondengui Prison in the capital, Yaoundé, the Committee to Protect Journalists calls on you to launch a public, thorough, and transparent inquiry into the circumstances of his death. We urge you to provide guarantees for the well-being of three other journalists held in Cameroonian prisons and address ongoing abuses—including allegations of state torture—against independent journalists who raise questions about the administration’s performance.

Ngota, editor of the private bimonthly Cameroon Express, died from “abandonment, improper care” and “failure to render assistance,” according to a prison death certificate that his family shared with journalists. Ngota, known by his nickname Bibi, suffered from high blood pressure and a hernia. Daily Le Jour quoted Ngota’s father as saying that his son’s medical conditions were diagnosed by a prison doctor identified as Dr. Ndi.

Ngota was arrested on February 25, along with editors Harrys Robert Mintya of Le Devoirand Serge Sabouang of La Nation, in connection with a criminal complaint from top presidential aide Laurent Esso in response to their investigation of corruption allegations involving Esso and the state oil company, National Hydrocarbons Company (SNH). The journalists were transferred to Kondengui prison in March under terms of pre-trial detention—which can lasts up to six months and can be extended twice, lawyer Jean-Marie Nouga told CPJ.

Three weeks before his arrest by police, Ngota was picked up by agents of the Cameroon intelligence agency (DGRE) while being treated for high blood pressure atBiyem-Assi district hospital in Yaoundé, Ngota’s father told Le Jour. He was held incommunicado without charge with Mintya, Sabouang and reporter Simon Hervé Nko’o of Bebela. The government has not publicly addressed Nko’o’s claims that security agents used psychological and physical torture to force the journalists to reveal their source for a document on which the allegations were based. Nko’o has since fled into hiding.

Your Excellency, we hold the government of Cameroon responsible for the well-being of the three newspaper editors currently held in state detention facilities, namely Mintya, Sabouang and Lewis Medjo of the defunct weekly La Détente Libre. Imprisoned since September 2008 at New Bell prison in the commercial city of Douala, Medjo’s health has deteriorated while in custody. He lost hearing in his right ear as a result of a severe ear infection while serving a three-year sentence over his coverage of a presidential decree, his brother Michée Medjo Gatheu told CPJ.

Accordingly, we exhort you to urgently take all the necessary steps to ensure that transparent investigations into Ngota’s death and allegations of torture against Nko’o are conducted, and that the results be made public. We ask you to hold to account all officials involved in abuses against their critics in the press and we urge you to initiate media reforms, particularly the decriminalization of press offenses, so that the press is able to raise questions about the management of public finances and cover the news without fear of reprisals.

Thank for your attention to these very important matters. We look forward to your response.

Joel Simon
Executive Director

Eritrea is Africa’s “biggest prison for media”: RSF | Eritrean News – Assenna

Dave — Wed, 05 May 2010 18:47:56 +0000

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.

Radio Free Asia “Permanent” — A Model for a Radio Free Africa?

Jacien Carr — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 02:53:12 +0000

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

Electric Eclipse: Exploding Cellular Infrastructure Overtakes Electricity in Sub-Saharan Africa

Sam Adjei — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 02:21:52 +0000

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

Dave — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 12:15:25 +0000

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)

Ethopian action against VOA shows need for independent media

Dave — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 19:10:48 +0000

Ethiopia, as reported by the BBC, admitted to jamming the VOA’s signal. The associated language is severe as Prime Minister Zenawi (pictured below) evoked the Rwandan genocide as a result of external incitement by VOA.

The VOA, as reported by Bloomberg and others, responded with strong language of their own.

The situation generally shows us both:
1) The massive impact that the airwaves have on the political situation in oppressed countries and

2) The need for non-aligned, truly independent, media outlets — and the need to somehow establish this within the boundaries of non-free nations.

We’ll be following this developing story.

Voices of Africa Media Foundation Trains Young Journalists

Sam Adjei — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:45:32 +0000

A new wave is sweeping through Africa. The driving forces behind this wave is the spirit of the African youth and the Voices of Africa Media Foundation. The Voices of Africa Media Foundation is an innovative organisation that empowers young Africans with limited media experience to take advantage of new media and build careers as journalists. The foundation is registered under Dutch Law and they coordinates their activities from their office in Haarlem, the Netherlands.

Using the power of cell phones, potential reporters are trained to create objective news about their own communities. Media professionals are employed to coach trainees online. Trainees are then encouraged to create news and publish the stories on a training website. Alumni of this program create news that fall under these categories; health, society, economy, governance, environment, and youth. A selection of the best reports is published on third party publication platforms.

Although founded in 2006, the foundation has conducted training programs in Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania and South Africa. These feats have won them a BoB Award (Best Videoblog 2008), Webby Award (Official Honoree News category 2008), and a World Summit Award (e-Inclusion and Participation 2009).

Plan’s Youth Media Program reaches African Children

Dave — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:32:24 +0000

We’ve recently discovered some of the fantastic youth-oriented African programming provided by Plan’s Youth Media and Development Program.

Kids Waves, funded by Nokia, is one example:

Kids Waves is a regional radio project hosted by children in 10 West African countries that helps them to make their voices heard and to learn about issues relevant to them.

In the town of Kongoussi in Burkina Faso, many births are not registered, depriving children of access to the national health and education systems and, more importantly, to protection from illegal trafficking to neighboring agricultural regions. A Kids Waves broadcast inspired a youth group to canvass the town to verify that children in each family were registered and to assist parents in completing registration formalities.

The YMDP program also made progress by hosting the Media and Development Forum in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) in 2008.

Finally, have a look at the intriguing “Virtual Village” website for Nyalakot Uganda.

Thanks to Gina Robbins for contributing to this post.

Shortwave is Unstoppable

Sam Adjei — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 02:14:23 +0000

How do you get vital information to someone who is poor and is being oppressed in a far away country? How do you ensure that such information is not interruptions or jammed by governments?

Shortwave is your answer. A shortwave radio can receive transmission on frequencies between 3 and 30 MHz. They offer the possibility to transmit over for long distances.

Shortwave broadcasting sites use Antenna Arrays supported by miles of wires suspended in the air or buried in the ground. These arrays are used to direct signals toward the ionosphere. Using calculations based on electronic directionalizing, power, and atmospheric conditions, these antennas project their signals so they will come down on specific target areas around the world.

A receiver can then tune in to listen to information being broadcast. A simple receiver able to receive some desirable frequencies is all that is need.

The shortwave radios are widely available. Repressive governments find it difficult to censor them. In places where there is no electricity, hand-cranked shortwave radio can last indefinitely. Shortwave radio travels much farther than broadcast FM (88-108 MHz). Shortwave broadcasts can be easily transmitted over a distance of several thousands of kilometers, i.e. from one continent to another, especially at night.

Major broadcasting corporations such as Voice of America and BBC World services continue to use shortwave in their international broadcasting.

Appfrica: Doing Well by Doing Good

Sam Adjei — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 15:42:03 +0000

Appfrica International is a unique for-profit organization based in Uganda. While doing well as a software development firm producing innovative products and services, Appfrica is doing good by offering opportunities and work experience to East African software entrepreneurs and graduates. They aim at augmenting the growing local software development market. The video below gives a 60 second overview.

With a CEO, Jon Gosier, who clearly falls under what Radio Free Africa’s Prof. Ayittey calls the cheetah generation, Appfrica is performing what they termed “alchemy” on a shoestring budget. Their success is sure proof that the African needs only to be unchained to release his or her dream.

In pursuing their mission, Appfrica runs Appfrica.net as their publishing arm disseminating news on emerging technology. They also produce Appfricast, which is available on iTunes.

Moreover, Appfrica Labs provide a physical space with solid Internet connection, servers, software and computers to individuals to develop their ideas in a constructive environment under the mentorship professionals. The Lab recently started an International Fellowship Programme, bringing well renowned developers from around the globe to share experiences with up and coming developers in East Africa.

Appfrica gives East African graduates hand-on programming experience in various programming languages with a vision to make the sub-region an attractive place for software development.

Here’s a 60 second video overview: