Photo: Journalists on duty
A group, the International Federation of Journalists, Africa Office, says perpetrators of crimes against journalists must be brought to justice because impunity undermines the judicial system and weakens democracy.
Louis Thomasi, its Director,,who is also the Head of Secretariat, Federation of African Journalists (FAJ) made this known during a webinar tagged “West and Central Africa Consultation on the UN Plan of Action on Safety of Journalists”.
The webinar was jointly organized by FAJ, Africa Freedom of Expression Exchange (AFEX) and the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), in collaboration with UNESCO.
The discussions during the webinar gave special attention to the four safety of journalists’ P’s including , prevention, protection, prosecution, and partnerships.
Thomasi said journalists and media houses continued to face mounting challenges, as they were constantly harassed, intimidated, arbitrarily arrested, held incommunicado, forced into exile and in extreme cases killed with impunity.
According to him, one common denominator with regards to the status of press freedom in Western and Central Africa is the “systematic introduction of obnoxious legislations that are designed to clip the wings of the press”.
He said the Central Africa region had some of the crudest and archaic media legislations in the entire continent, adding that defamation, insult laws among others were still used to imprison journalists.
“On the other hand, the majority of countries in West Africa are still dragging their feet with regards to the decriminalization of libel.
“Seditious laws with regards to the media are still in statute books and journalists are still imprisoned with regards to these archaic laws.
“The problem is that the majority of our governments in these regions have not demonstrated the political will to implement laws and harmonize the international conventions that they have signed and ratified,” he said.
Thomasi emphasized that governments had a duty to guarantee the safety of journalists and media workers as enshrined in Principle 20 from one to six of the Declaration of Principle on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa.
He also recommended that media organizations and Journalists’ Associations and Unions, in collaboration with UNESCO and state governments work together for the establishment of national safety mechanisms in West and Central Africa.
Edetaen Ojo, Chairman, Steering Committee, AFEX and Executive Director, Media Rights Agenda noted that the media community in many parts of Africa as in other parts of the world, was under relentless attack.
According to him, 10 years after the adoption of the UN plan of action on the safety of journalists, they continue to face challenges that interfere with their watchdog role.
“This meeting was organized as part of the process of assessing the achievement and gaps, as well as identifying areas for improvement in the implementation of the UN plan of action in Africa.
“This is the third regional consultation in this series as similar consultations have been held in South Sudan and Eastern Africa,” he said
Also, Paul Coustère, Regional Director for Central Africa and UNESCO Representative to Cameroon noted that numerous social crisis on the continent have had victims among women and men in the media sector.
On his part, it is evident that enforcing the safety of journalists, freedom of expression and access to information should be a common action.
