June 29, 2007, Accra Ghana

“IFJ African Journalists out of Jail Campaign”

Call to Heads of State of Africa and the Africa Union

Free All Journalists Imprisoned in Africa!

By The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ),

In Collaboration With

The Network of African Freedom of Expression Organisations (NAFEO)
The West African Journalists association (WAJA)
The Ghana Journalists association (GJA)
The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)
The Centre for Research Education and Development of Rights in Africa 
(CREDO)
The All Africa Editors Forum (TAEF):

As we are gathered here,  13 journalists are languishing in jail in Ethiopia 
at the Kality prison in Addis Ababa, 15 other colleague journalists are held 
incommunicado in jail in Eritrea; in the Gambia “Chief” Ebrima Manneh a 
Gambian journalist  was arrested in July 2006 and is being held  
incommunicado

Last week in Mali five journalists were arrested and released a week later 
after a suspended sentence for an archaic offence to the head of the state 
legislation. This followed a dissertation a high school’ students wrote 
about the girl friend of an imaginary president of the republic. The school 
teacher has been sentenced to a 2 month imprisonment and is currently held 
in jail.

In many parts of Africa journalists, media workers and citizens have been 
forced to exile, maltreated, and assassinated for exercising the right to 
independent journalism and to free speech: namely in Zimbabwe, DR Congo, 
Swaziland; Somalia, etc...

Since 2001 in Eritrea, 15 journalists are being held in prison, 
incommunicado and not even charged. In September 2001, opposition leaders 
advocated for democratic reforms, which were widely carried by the press. 
Following these reports, ten journalists were arrested along with some 
opposition leaders. All private media houses have been forced to close down. 
The Eritrean government in an official statement labelled the journalists as 
"traitors working for the enemy" and a threat to national security. Five 
other journalists were arrested before the wave of repression began in 2001. 
Eritrea is the only country in the world where there are no independent 
media or foreign correspondents.

The government of Ethiopia is holding 13 journalists in its jails after its 
police went on a rampage raiding newspaper offices, confiscating equipment 
and issuing lists of wanted editors and writers in a naked crackdown against 
dissenters in November 2005, following general elections six month earlier. 
Let us recall that 20 journalists were arrested and only 8 of them were 
released last April, while the rest are still kept at the Kality prison in 
Addis

It is worth recalling that Ethiopia has more than 100 journalists in exile; 
this is similar for Zimbabwe. Many of our governments have forced 
journalists into exile. For decades, aggressions, assassinations, use of 
arbitrary detentions, torture and ill-treatment of journalists, and misuse 
of criminal charges within special courts and unfair trials have continued 
unabated in Africa.

This barbarism should stop; the African media and the media in the world 
should continuously expose these cases of acts of harassment and persecution 
of journalists by many African states and continue to make them the 
headlines.
The creation of the African Union (AU) in 2000 raised hope for Africa in 
several respects. In its Constitutive Act, the AU states among its 
objectives the wish to “promote democratic principles and institutions, 
popular participation and good governance; promote and protect human and 
peoples' rights in accordance with the African Charter on Human and Peoples' 
Rights and other relevant human rights instruments.” These values require 
the consolidation of democracy, rule of law, the possibility for all African 
citizens to take part in public affairs, freedom of expression, and press 
freedom.

The right to inform and to access information is one of the conditions for 
and criteria of democratic governance. It implies respect for freedom of 
expression and, particularly, the public’s access to the means of 
information as well as access, for journalists, to information in the public 
domain; a guaranteed media pluralism and the existence of a public 
information service.

The implementation of these rights in different AU Member States is 
currently very uneven. They are, moreover, often violated. The right to 
communicate is not among the major principles or criteria for good 
governance of the African Union, nor is it among the criteria for the peer 
review mechanism of the NEPAD. We are very unhappy about these omissions.

We wish to note that despite the arbitrary persecution, harassment and 
murder of media professionals on the continent, some governments have 
already implemented reforms or taken decisions with a view to respecting 
press freedom. Other African governments should be encouraged to follow 
these laudable examples.

In this regard:

We, the International Federation of Journalists, our members and affiliates 
all over Africa, together with NAFEO, WAJA, MFWA, GJA, CREDO, TAEF, call on 
the Heads of States of AFRICA meeting in Ghana, July 1through 3, 2007, and 
the AFRICA UNION COMMISSION:

1- To instantly ensure the release all journalists and media professionals 
imprisoned in Eritrea, Ethiopia, the Gambia and the whole of Africa;

2- To institute measures to end the impunity when journalists and media 
professionals are brutalised and assassinated in the exercise of their work.

3- To order the reopening of all media outlet closed down by governments

4- To create conditions for the return of exiled journalists into their home 
countries

The IFJ is hereby launching the “African Journalists out of Jail Campaign” 
and will put out a release announcing the setting up of the activities of 
the campaign.

Gabriel Ayite Baglo
Director
------------------------
International Federation of Journalists
Africa Regional Office
17, Boulevard de la République
BP 21 722 Dakar - Senegal
Tel: +221- 842 01 42 / 43
Fax: +221 842 02 69
Email: [log in to unmask]
[log in to unmask]
Websites: www.ifjafrique.org
www.ifj.org
29 juin 2007, Accra Ghana

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