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ETHIOPIA: Media groups discuss press freedom ahead of African Union summit

Wole Soyinka

ADDIS ABABA, 2 July (IRIN) - Media freedom groups were meeting in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, on Friday to discuss ways of encouraging African governments to ease restrictions on journalists, ahead of a three-day African Union (AU) summit. The groups, namely the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), CREDO for Freedom of Expression and Associated Rights and the Media Institute of Southern Africa are campaigning for a charter of press freedom enabling journalists and the media to fully challenge oppressive regimes and governments on the continent. Speaking at the meeting, the Nobel Prize-winning playwright, Wole Soyinka, attacked African leaders for "repressing the media on the continent". He called for the "shackles" constraining the media to be lifted and backed calls for the press to be protected by a continent-wide charter. "Constantly it is the foreign media on which we have to rely on learning the truth about ourselves and what is happening on this continent," Nigerian-born Soyinka said. "You don’t pick up African newspapers to find out what is happening, to understand, to get a graphic picture of Sudan; you have to pick up foreign newspapers." "Our own media are not really encouraged. They have not been sufficiently unshackled to take the initiative to bring to us the news of the very latest atrocities," he added. Earlier, Soyinka met AU Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare, and urged him to take urgent steps to protect media freedom on the continent. Soyinka, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, was himself jailed for writing an article during the civil war in Nigeria appealing for a ceasefire. He was arrested in 1967, accused of conspiring with the Biafra rebels, and was held as a political prisoner for 22 months. Rotimi Sankore, the coordinator of CREDO, said the persecution of journalists appeared to be increasing. "No single day passes without a violation of free speech on the continent," Sankore told journalists at a press conference. "It is absolutely impossible for the African continent to develop to its fullest potential without media freedom and freedom of expression." The media groups cited Zimbabwe and Eritrea as examples of African countries that have repressed free speech and journalism. "Zimbabwe today is one of the most repressive regimes, not only of its own people but particularly of the media," Gabriel Baglo, the director of the IFJ Africa office, said. On Eritrea, he added: "It is unacceptable that a government can shut down the entire media in a country and expect that country to develop further in any way at all." [This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

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