NEPAD IGNORES PRESS FREEDOM CONCERNS, SAY IFEX MEMBERS

Five organisations, including the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), the International Press Institute (IPI), the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) and the World Press Freedom Committee (WPFC), have expressed concerns that NEPAD's lack of safeguards for press freedom may encourage some governments to continue repressing the media. In a letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the groups say NEPAD's African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), which allows countries to scrutinise each other's governance policies - has omitted a key indicator from its criteria - the fostering of free and independent news media. "We fear that the omission of this requirement from NEPAD's APRM criteria has encouraged some countries to believe they have a green light to repress their media," the groups say. The organisations say there has been a significant increase in detentions, prosecutions, prison sentences and other punitive acts against editors and journalists in Africa in recent years. Most of these violations are due to "insult laws" that criminalise criticism of government officials. In The Gambia, the government recently approved laws that impose criminal penalties for press offenses and threaten to inhibit media development. In Ethiopia, authorities are planning to push through a proposed press law that has sparked protests by local and international press freedom groups. A new law passed in Somalia in 2004 forces media outlets to register with the government and criminalises defamation of public officials. Read the letter to Kofi Annan: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/64243/