There are 145 journalists in jail in 28 countries worldwide — the highest number reported in the past 14 years, according to an annual prison census released by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Friday. This year, 42 journalists were killed — and eight of those deaths occurred in Africa.
CPJ is a non-profit organisation which promotes worldwide press freedom by defending the rights of journalists to report the news without fear of reprisal. Robert Mahoney, CPJ deputy director, spoke at a Critical Thinking Forum presented by the Mail & Guardian, The Freedom of Expression Institute and the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism in Parktown, Johannesburg, on Monday evening at which he discussed “the protection of journalism in Africa”.
“Don’t think for a second,” said Mahoney, “that these deaths [the 42] occurred in crossfire”. One in three of the deceased journalists were deliberately murdered, he said.
Mahoney said governments used imprisonment as the primary way to crack down on those who question their authority. In Eritrea, 18 journalists are in jail, many of whom have been put there under “vague” anti-state or security laws.
He said the effects of this sort of media control manifested itself in particular ways: journalists begin to censor themselves and learned to ignore things which could “cost them their liberty or even their life”. Journalistic talent also tended to haemorrhage out of the country. Mahoney told the audience to look no further than Zimbabwe as an example, where 48 journalists have been forced into exile. “No voice remains in the country except that of the government.”
‘If the govt gets us to censor ourselves, then they have won’
Mahoney brought the discussion back home in mentioning the Protection of Information Bill and the highly contentious media appeals tribunal proposed by the South African government. “If the government gets us to censor ourselves, then they have won,” he said. And if a state is repressive, “there will be a price to pay”.
He said however there were ways to fight authoritarian regimes. “The best people to push back are the local journalists themselves.”
Even more effective was to work with outside organisations such as the CPJ, which would amplify the journalist’s work and raise their profile as many governments would be reluctant to arrest or harm a high-profile journalist.
Journalists, he said, are far more successful when united by their cause: “When a press corps comes together and adheres, it can be very effective.”
WikiLeaks
M&G editor Nic Dawes raised the question of WikiLeaks and how actions the United States may take could be in stark contrast with its First Amendment, or the the right to freedom of speech.
Mahoney said he would be “surprised’ to see any moves by the US government against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and noted there was a lot of rhetoric surrounding the issue in the US. He said the CPJ were monitoring developments very closely.
Speaking generally, he insisted that if information relating to national security was somehow disseminated, it was the state’s fault. The real issue he said, was the “bad faith of governments which use [the excuse of] state security as a form of censorship”.
“Government has very little business telling us what is a story and what isn’t,” he said. “The worst thing is to be silent because then we become complicit. The moment you don’t care, it becomes a slippery slope because governments realise they can get away with it.”