UNDERCOVER GUIDE published on World Press Freedom Day

World Press Freedom Day on May 3 is commemorated annually to celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom; to evaluate press freedom around the world, to defend the media from attacks on their independence and to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the exercise of their profession.

Tanzanian journalists self-censor for fear of attack, harassment

Conditions for journalists are worsening in Tanzania, with reporters increasingly being harassed, attacked and censoring their work out of fear of reprisal, a study has found.

By Kizito Makoye, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Fri 9 Aug 2013

Newsletter: May 2013

AFRICAN INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM GRANTS FUND

List of winning  proposals will be published soon. FAIR thanks SIDA for supporting the Grants Fund. A special website will showcase investigative content produced under the Small  Grants programme 2013.

In Togo, police attack journalists protesting media law

Togolese police on Thursday fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse journalists protesting new censorship authority granted to the government media regulator, according to news reports and local journalists.

As Kenya votes, journalists must take precautions

Election-related violence is a worry for journalists in many countries, but perhaps nowhere more so than Kenya, where presidential polls will be held March 4. In the aftermath of the nation’s last presidential elections in 2007, over one thousand people were killed in ethnic and political violence, live news broadcasts were banned, and the press faced a torrent of threats, leading to widespread self-censorship.

In Mali, a war ‘without images and without facts’

The French army is often called la Grande Muette, or “the Great Silent.” The war in Mali confirms the French military’s well-deserved reputation of being secretive about front-line actions. “Locking the information is more in the culture of the French army than of the U.S. army,” says Maurice Botbol, director of La Lettre du Continent. In the first two weeks of military operations against Islamist militant groups in Mali, the French army hasreleased only a blurry video of an air attack at an undisclosed location.

Gambian investigative journalist threatened

The Committee to Protect Journalists said it holds authorities in Gambia responsible for the safety of a journalist who received death threats following critical coverage of the government.