Malaga, Spain – Receiving the 2019 X-International Press Freedom Prize Tuesday, FrontPageAfrica editor Rodney Sieh frowned on African leaders who clamp down on journalists for simply refusing to toe the lines of bad governance, corruption and greed.
“Until, rulers, dictators and presidents in Africa realize that journalists are not their puppets; Until they understand that it is not the journalist’s place to sing their praises – or toe the lines of sycophancy, or promote their craving for bad governance and corruption, the press in Africa will continue to fall prey to threats, intimidation, imprisonment – and even deaths. . . This is the job we have chosen. . . and this is the ultimate sacrifice we are prepared to make for the common good.”
Mr. Sieh said US President Donald Trump has given African leaders the license to label journalists as criminals and conveyors of “fake news”.
“Thanks to US President Donald Trump who has demonized our work, more and more leaders and rulers across the continent of Africa – and even the world – have adopted what is now the ring tune against the media, dubbed, trumpeted and packaged as “fake news”.
“Until, rulers, dictators and presidents in Africa realize that journalists are not their puppets; Until they understand that it is not the journalist’s place to sing their praises – or toe the lines of sycophancy, or promote their craving for bad governance and corruption, the press in Africa will continue to fall prey to threats, intimidation, imprisonment – and even deaths. . . This is the job we have chosen. . . and this is the ultimate sacrifice we are prepared to make for the common good.”
– Rodney D. Sieh, Editor, FrontPageAfrica , Winner 2019 X-International Press Freedom Prize
The FPA editor said nowadays, investigating the corrupt, probing into bad governance of rulers and leaders are being branded as fake news and those who report them as criminals, when in fact, we are simply journalists doing our jobs.
The trend is spreading across Africa where most countries are becoming a hotbed for attacks on the free press.
“Today, journalists in Africa are undergoing immense pain and suffering for writing against the ills of society and those languishing at the bottom of the economic ladder. From Ethiopia to Nigeria, Cameroun to Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Congo, Burundi, Chad, Uganda and elsewhere, Journalists are being accused daily of criminal defamation – or forced to self-sensor themselves just to toe the lines of bad governance – and their perpetrators, bad rulers.”
“Thanks to US President Donald Trump who has demonized our work, more and more leaders and rulers across the continent of Africa – and even the world – have adopted what is now the ring tune against the media, dubbed, trumpeted and packaged as “fake news”. – Rodney Sieh, Managing Editor/Publisher, FrontPageAfrica
Journalists, he said have become easy targets of ruling establishments determined to keep the truth of their evil deeds hidden from the world.
He highlighted several cases on the continent where journalists are under fire.
In September, Erick Kabendera, a Tanzanian journalist was arrested after criticizing the president.
“At first, the government raised issues about his citizenship. Later, the charges were changed – and he was accused of sedition, money laundering, and organized crime. Organized crime because he wrote an article in The Economist, in which he said President John Magufuli was “bulldozing” Tanzania’s freedom.
In Burundi, four journalists and their driver were arrested on October 22nd, while on a reporting trip to Bubanza Province for the Iwacu newspaper. Those journalists and their driver are still languishing in jail facing anti-state charges. This is an outrage!!!”
Although the journalists had informed authorities of their plan to travel to the area to report on an outbreak in fighting between Burundian security forces and a group of assailants, a police chief of operations arrested them while they were doing their jobs.
“Today, journalists in Africa are undergoing immense pain and suffering for writing against the ills of society and those languishing at the bottom of the economic ladder. From Ethiopia to Nigeria, Cameroun to Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Congo, Burundi, Chad, Uganda and elsewhere, Journalists are being accused daily of criminal defamation – or forced to self-sensor themselves just to toe the lines of bad governance – and their perpetrators, bad rulers.”
In Uganda last week, the police and the military, while cracking down on student protests over fee increases at Makerere University in Kampala, arrested journalists and prevented them from entering the university to cover the protests.
The FPA editor highlighted the case in Cameroon, where journalists are under threats for their lives and accused daily by the government of being unpatriotic because they refuse to sing the praises of bad leadership and toe the lines of sycophancy.
The case of television reporter Samuel Wazizi was arrested for allegedly supporting separatist fighters in Cameroon’s English-speaking north, west, and southwest regions. “Today, it is very dangerous to be a journalist in Cameroun where it is becoming impossible to practice the profession amid increased threats from both separatist fighters and the government.”
In Rwanda, which endured years of war and genocide between the Hutus and Tutsis, the FPA editor lamented that journalists are strongly inclined to self-censor just to avoid creating conflict or fear amongst the general public or falling afoul of government restrictions. “Under Paul Kagame, journalists can report freely about corruption and other misdeeds – as long as those misdeeds do not involve the presidency. Under the law, journalists are forbidden to criticize the president; So, they self-censor when it comes to publishing anything critical of the country’s security or military. These laws, although counter to press freedom, which is guaranteed in the Rwanda’s constitution, continue to linger, keeping scores of journalists at bay – and under a state of fear and paranoia.”
“Journalists play a key role in shedding light on incidents of public interest, corruption, bad governance and neglect of the poor. We should not be prosecuted for legitimately doing that which we were called to do.”
Citing instances in his homeland, Liberia, Mr. Sieh cited two cases which has stretched the Weah-led government to the wall. “Roots FM owned by my colleague Henry Costa was shut down recently and his transmitters and broadcast equipment taken away.
When the judge handling the case ruled that the government was wrong to shut down the station, the judge was removed. Patrick Honnah, another one of my colleagues was told he could not come on the air with his new Punch FM Radio Station even though he had filed all the paperwork and granted license to operate. Both men with powerful voices, like me, have found themselves on the wrong side of right in what is supposed to be a democratic nation.”
What all these cases have in common, the FPA editor underscored, is a sudden urge by governments to prosecute, maim and criminalize journalists and media practitioners for doing their jobs. Highlighting the issues affecting the poor and neglected have suddenly become unbearable for those at the helm of power.”
Across the continent, Scores of my colleagues have been
killed, maimed, persecuted, and jailed; many others live under a constant cloud
of threats. Fear permeates our work environment. Others live in exile,
separated from their families and friends, and disconnected from the lives they
had lived, the history that had given them a sense of place.
If the world is going to change, if people’s lives are going to change, we must
do better and must respect the work of journalists.
Not doing so is simply a recipe for neglect, suffering and pain of the
voiceless few lacking the platform to tell their stories.
The FPA editor used the platform to appeal to President George Manneh Weah to ensure that the defamation and criminalization laws in Liberia are repealed.
“I hope and pray that this is the beginning of change and I appeal to our President George Weah to make this a legacy project of his presidency.” He said, the truth of the matter is, as much as a growing wave of dictatorship and criminalization of journalists are being trumpeted by a sitting US President and adopted by leaders across the continent of Africa, the more dangerous the terrain will remain for journalists like me, trying to do the right thing.
“Journalists play a key role in shedding light on incidents of public interest, corruption, bad governance and neglect of the poor. We should not be prosecuted for legitimately doing that which we were called to do,” he said.
Crackdown against the press, he added, should be condemned by all because it threatens the survival of the media, not just on our continent of Africa but the world as a whole. “I hope that my being here today, in Malaga, Spain to receive this year’s X-International Prize will in a small way arouse the attention of the world to the dangerous terrain on which we work.”