State of Free Expression Violations in West Africa: January April, 2014

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2 State of Free Expression Violations in West Africa: January April, 2014 I. Introduction Since the mid-1990s West Africa has witnessed gradual but recognizable shift from autocratic regimes to elected governments. However, close to half of countries in the region are still recovering or transitioning from civil wars, post-election conflicts, incessant military take-overs, or general political instability. Notable among such countries are Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cote d Ivoire, Mali, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Togo and Mauritania. The steady transition in governance coupled with consistent campaigning by Freedom of Expression (FoE) and human rights groups such as the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has resulted in relative improvements in FoE conditions, particularly media freedom and media pluralism in the region. Nonetheless, political intolerance, activities of fundamentalists and drug trafficking groups, government impunity, and the continued existence and application of repressive speech laws, continue to limit FoE rights in many countries of the region. As part of its persistent efforts to promote, defend and protect the exercise of FoE rights in the region, the MFWA has been monitoring and exposing violations of FoE rights occurring in all the 16 countries in the region. The MFWA has also been carrying out targeted advocacy against such violations and continuously campaign for the repeal of laws that criminalise free expression-related offences. The organisation has also been carrying out direct litigation on behalf of victims and defenders of FoE rights. To further improve information sharing and provide additional evidence in a concise manner to support multi-stakeholder advocacy against FoE rights violations, the MFWA is introducing the West Africa Free Expression Monitor, a periodic publication that will highlight incidents of violations in the region. This is the first edition of the West Africa Free Expression Monitor. It presents an analysis of incidents of FoE violations that occurred during the first four months of the year (January to April, 2014). This edition highlights incidents of violations that were recorded in each of the countries in the region during the reporting period the type of violations that were recorded; and the countries in which the violations occurred. There is also a comparison of the trends and types of violations that occurred during the same period the previous year (2013). For the reporting period (January to April, 2014), the analyses show a 2

3 marginal improvement in both number of incidents and severity of violations compared with the same period in II. Methodology This report focuses on incidents of FoE violations that occurred in the 16 countries of West Africa (the 15 ECOWAS Member States and Mauritania) during the period, January to April The report is predominantly based on analyses of FoE rights violation reports received from the MFWA s trained correspondents (freedom of expression rights monitors) and issued as Rights Violation Alerts (as published in In order to capture other incidents of violations that may not have been reported by MFWA s monitors, a search was conducted on the website of IFEX ( to track and include other reports of violations that occurred during the reporting period and issued by other rights groups such as the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders, Article 19, Media Rights Agenda, among others. The findings are desegregated into number and type of violations that occurred during the reporting period in the various countries and compared with number and type of violations during the same period in The findings are presented in narrative and illustrated with tables. The report then makes a number of recommendations for improving FoE in West Africa. III. Incidents of Free Expression Violations During the first four months of 2014, the MFWA recorded a total of 25 incidents of FoE rights violations compared with 36 violations during the same period in The 2014 figure represents close to 30.5 percent decrease in incidence of violation compared with the same period in For the first four months of 2014, the violations occurred in eight out of the 16 countries in the region with Ghana leading with eight (8) incidents followed by Nigeria and Cote d Ivoire with four (4) and three (3) incidents respectively. The Gambia, Liberia, Niger, Togo and Sierra Leone recorded two incidents of violation each. Even though Mali, Guinea and Benin did not record violations in the first four months of 2014, there were incidents of violations in those countries during the same period in There were no 3

4 reports of incidents of violations in Cape Verde, Mauritania, Guinea Bissau, Senegal and Burkina Faso during the two periods. The table below shows the number of FoE violations for each of the countries in which violations occurred during the first four months of 2014 and Table 1: Number of FoE violations in first four months of 2014 and Country Incidents of Violations Total Ghana Nigeria Cote d Ivoire The Gambia Liberia Niger Togo Sierra Leone Mali Guinea Benin Burkina Faso Cape Verde Guinea Bissau Mauritania Senegal Total In a number of countries particularly in The Gambia and Burkina Faso and Togo, for example, years of massive government repression and crackdown of media freedoms have resulted in overwhelming selfcensorship and less critical media. Consequently, in such countries incidents of violations may be low not necessarily because authorities are not perpetrating such violations but because the media and the public have been cowed into submission. 4

5 IV. Types of Violations The most prevalent FoE violation during the first four months of 2014 was arrests and detention of journalists. A total of nine (9) journalists were arrested and detained on various charges related to their work. This was, however, an improvement of the record for the same period in 2013 when a total of 14 journalists and activists were arrested and detained. Majority of the arrests and detentions in the first four months of 2013 happened in Nigeria and Mali with five (5) and four (4) incidents respectively. Spontaneous exposure of such violations and active campaigns by the MFWA and its partners to demand the release of journalists and activists, have often resulted in either unconditional release or granting of bail to affected journalists and activists as required by law. Attacks and threats to mainly journalists, was the next pervasive form of violation during the first four months of the year. Again, there was an improvement on this type of violation as the frequency of violation reduced from a total of 11 from January to April 2013, to six (6) during the same period this year. The attacks are usually perpetrated by state security personnel in the form of physical abuse of journalists or destruction of their cameras, recorders and other equipment. These usually happen while journalists are covering public functions or demonstrations. In April this year for example, the MFWA issued a statement expressing concern about the increasing trend of attacks and harassment of journalists by personnel of the Ghana Armed Forces and the Ghana Police Service. There have also been cases of attacks on journalists and media houses by groups of political party activists. The next was imposition of fines on media and journalists. Four incidents were recorded (two in Ghana and two in Cote d Ivoire) during the reporting period for 2014, compared with just one (in Nigeria) during the first four months of In Cote d Ivoire, it was the press regulatory body, Conseil National De La Press (CNP), that imposed fines equivalent to US$1000, US$2000 and US$6000 respectively against three different newspapers (Notre Voie, Le Jour Plus, and Le Nouveau Courrier) for what the regulatory body described as publication of false news by the affected newspapers. In Ghana, the fines involved two private newspapers The Informer and the Daily Guide. The two newspapers were heavily fined by the Courts on cases of defamation. The Informer was fined the equivalent of US$120, 000 while the Daily Guide was fined the equivalent of US$98,000. The MFWA described both 5

6 fines as highly prohibitive and crippling considering the size of the two newspapers and the Ghanaian media industry in general. There were two incidents of censorship - one each in Liberia and Cote d Ivoire during the reporting period for The same number of incidents of censorship occurred during the same period in 2013 with both incidents happening in Nigeria. Two incidents of digital/online rights violation were recorded in the first four months of this year (one each in The Gambia and Nigeria) as against none during the same period in There were no incidents of murder and jailing of journalists or free expression activists during first four months of During the same period in 2013, however, Mr. Ikechukwu Udendu, Editor of Anambra News, a monthly newspaper in Nigeria, was murdered by unknown assailants. The table below shows countries and the type and number of violations that occurred during the first four months of 2014 and

7 Table 2: Type and Frequency of FoE violations in Various Countries in West Africa. Type of Violation Killed Attacked/ Threatened Arrested/ Detained Censored Banned New Legislation Sentenced Online Violations Fined Country Total Nigeria Ghana Togo C. d Ivoire Liberia S. Leone Mali Gambia Niger Guinea Benin B. Faso C. Verde Guinea Bissau Mauritania Senegal Total

8 V. Conclusion While there have been general improvements in the conditions of freedom of expression in the West Africa region, there are still considerable violations and enormous threats to free expression in many countries. The enormity of the threats to freedom of expression in particular and democratisation in general, is reflected in the many prevailing security and general human rights challenges in several parts of the region including the fragile security and political conditions in transitional countries in the region such as Cote d Ivoire, Mali, Guinea, Guinea Bissau and Togo; and continuing alarming acts of violence by the Boko Haram and other fundamentalist groups in Nigeria and the Sahel parts of the region; Repressive laws, particularly criminal libel continue to exist and are applied in many countries in the region. Where such laws have been repealed, there is an emerging trend of Courts improvising crippling damages on media houses in civil defamation cases. The continued application of repressive laws and imposition of prohibitive fines by the Courts continues to have a chilling effect on media freedom in the region. Government impunity also remains a major challenge to freedom of expression in the region. The Government of The Gambia for example, has for the past four years, refused to comply with two separate judgments of the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice. In June 2008, the Community Court found the Gambian authorities responsible for the disappearance of Ebrima Manneh, a journalist with the Daily Observer who has been missing since July In December 2010, the Court again found the Gambian government responsible for the torture of Musa Saidykhan, a former chief editor of The Independent newspaper, also in Just last month, the Court again ruled that The Gambia had violated its treaty obligations to ECOWAS by promoting a climate of impunity that stifled freedom of expression, as it failed to properly investigate the murder of Deyda Hydara, a leading newspaper editor killed in inexplicable circumstances in In all the cases, the Court ruled that the Gambian authorities should pay compensation to victims of the violations or affected family members but the authorities have since disregarded the 8

9 judgments. In other countries too, such as Ghana, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone, the killers of certain prominent journalists are yet to be found and punished. Such flagrant disregard of the decisions of the Highest Court of the region and acts of impunity only tend to embolden perpetrators of rights violations. VI. Recommendations There is the need for continuous and increased joint civil society advocacy to improve free expression and democratic conditions in some of the countries and consolidate gains made in others. Governments in the region should respect citizen s rights to free expression as contained in the various regional, continental and international human rights documents ratified by all the countries in the region. The ECOWAS must ensure the judgments of the Community Court of Justice are respected by offending member states. Speech offences should not be criminalised and accordingly, countries that still have criminal libel in their statutes should endeavour to repeal such laws. Countries should endeavour to promote the safety of journalists and avoid acts of impunity. Countries in the region should adopt progressive policies and practices (especially those relating to the internet) that will facilitate and empower citizens to freely express themselves. Innovative media professional development programmes are required for improving professional standards and enhancing the media s capacity to contribute to democratisation and peace building in the region. 9