By Beatrice Chabaya
The Committee to Protect Journalists has revealed that 67 journalists were imprisoned for their work across Africa as of December 1, 2024.
Zambia has this time not appeared in the 2024 census after featuring for the second time in 2023 following the detention of journalist Thomas Zgambo at the time the census was captured.
Egypt was the worst jailer in 2024, with 17 journalists in its prisons while Eritrea remained the leading jailer in sub-Saharan Africa, with 16 journalists behind bars.
Globally, more than 60% of the 361 journalists in CPJ’s 2024 census – 228 – are imprisoned under a range of broad anti-state laws frequently used to stifle independent voices. The year under review saw over 100 new jailings worldwide.
According to its Prison Census released last week, CPJ states that Eritrea remained the leading jailer in sub-Saharan Africa, with 16 journalists who were incarcerated between 2000 and 2005 still appearing on its census.
Globally, the country tied with Iran and Vietnam as the seventh-worst offenders, CPJ stated.
“Those held in Eritrea include some of the longest-known cases of journalists imprisoned around the world, as no charges against them have ever been disclosed. Over the years, Eritrean officials have offered vague and inconsistent explanations for the journalists’ arrests — accusing them of involvement in anti-state conspiracies in connection with foreign intelligence, skirting military service, and violating press regulations. Officials, at times, even denied that the journalists existed,” CPJ stated.
In Ethiopia, five of the six journalists held by authorities are facing terrorism charges after covering the ongoing conflict in Amhara. The sixth, Yeshihasab Abera, was arrested in September 2024 amid escalating tensions in the region and reports of mass arrests of civilians, civil servants, academics, and journalists as part of a government “law enforcement operation” targeting armed groups and their alleged supporters, according to CPJ’s Prison Census.
“Officials have not provided any reason for Yeshihasab’s detention or disclosed any charges against him,” the global press freedom organisation stated.
Further, Cameroon and Rwanda each held five journalists, mostly on anti-state or false news charges.
“In January 2024, Rwandan YouTuber Dieudonné Niyonsenga, who also goes by Cyuma Hassan, told a court that he was detained under “inhumane” conditions in a “hole” and was frequently beaten. Niyonsenga’s application to have his trial reviewed was rejected and he continues to serve a seven-year sentence,” CPJ stated.
Meanwhile, in Nigeria, authorities are using a cybercrimes law to prosecute its four imprisoned journalists for their reporting on alleged corruption.
“Despite reforms to the country’s Cybercrimes Act in February 2024, it continues to be used to summon, intimidate, and detain journalists for their work. Burundi held one journalist, Sandra Muhoza, on CPJ’s census day. Her conviction on charges that included undermining the integrity of the national territory reflected a trend of anti-state charges against journalists in the East African nation. Floriane Irangabiye, sentenced to 10 years for the same charge in 2023, was freed in August 2024 following a presidential pardon,” CPJ stated. “Similarly, in 2020 four journalists with the outlet Iwacu were sentenced to 2 and half years for attempting to undermine state security, after reporting on clashes with rebels, and freed on a presidential pardon in December of that year.”
And in Senegal, journalist Capain Bassène has been in jail since 2018 and his life sentence upheld by an appeals court in 2024 after being convicted of masterminding a massacre in a southern Senegal forest.
According to CPJ, Bassène did not appear in their previous prison censuses because research at that time could not confirm that his detention was connected to his work.