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Special Rapporteur concerned over safety of journalists in Africa
Media Institute of Southern Africa
November 01, 2012

http://www.misa.org/index.php/featured-news/item/490-advocate-pansy-tlakula-concerned-over-safety-of-journalists-in-africa

The safety of journalists must be tackled effectively or journalists would start practising self-censorship, advocate Pansy Tlakula, chairperson of the Electoral Commission, said yesterday.

Tlakula was speaking at Wits University, where she gave the inaugural Carlos Cardoso Memorial Lecture at the African Investigative Journalism Conference.

Tlakula called on schools of journalism and media houses to tackle the issue of the safety of journalists in order to avoid "self-censorship becoming the order of the day".

"I don't see media houses paying attention to the issue of journalists' safety."

Tlakula, who is a Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression in the African Commission for Human and People's Rights, said 110 journalists had died in the line of duty in 2012. Of these, 27 were in Africa. Somalia was "one of the deadliest places for a journalist".

In several African countries, oppressive laws regarding freedom of expression still existed.

These laws made defamation a criminal offence punishable by fines and jail sentences, and could include the suspension of the publication concerned.

In these cases, journalists could be charged with defamation even if what they published was true.

Tlakula called on everyone to support the campaign to "rid our continent of these unreasonable laws".

She called on the public to "keep on fighting for the inclusion of the public interest defence clause in the secrecy bill, "because without that defence, the right to freedom of expression may be compromised . . . ".

While South Africa had strong access to information laws, their implementation remained a challenge.

Only 10 countries in Africa had adopted access to information laws.

That had led the commission to develop model access to information laws to help other African countries develop their own.

Tlakula said the plight of journalists in Africa was "keeping me awake, trying to keep people out of jail".

The UN had recognised the importance of safety of journalists and had passed a resolution in this regard in 2012.

"Sadly these high-level interventions have not improved the situation of journalists on the ground."

She referred to the bravery of Mozambican journalists Carlos Cardoso, who had been assassinated in 2000 while investigating massive fraud at the country's largest bank and implicating leading political figures and their families.

She said Cardoso would have died in vain if governments continued to ignore their regional and international obligations and continued to impede the freedom of expression and access to information with oppressive laws.

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