In the last census of 2002, Benin’s population stood at 7.250.033 habitants and in 2009 should be more than 8 million people, according to projections, and for an area of 112.622 square kilometers. Since the onset of the regime of President Boni Yayi in April 2006, there has been an upsurge of attacks on press freedom and human rights. This makes the practice of journalism difficult. Benin’s media continues to be characterised by a stranglehold of the government on the broadcast media especially the national television and a phenomenon of journalists at the service of the government.

General Overview

Cape Verde obtained its independence from Portugal in 1975. It is located some 500 kilometres off the coast of Senegal. Its population is a little under 600,000 inhabitants, more than half of whom are said to be expatriates. The capital city is Praia. This ten-island archipelago in Atlantic Ocean is considered one the most stable democracies in Africa.

General Overview

Since the signing of the Ouagadougou Political Agreements (APO), the socio political life is dictated by the general elections. However, the first election which was slated for November 30, 2008 was postponed to November 29, 2009.

General Overview

The year 2009 was perhaps the worst and most trying times for journalists and other media workers in The Gambia. It registered the highest number of arrests and imprisonment of journalists in the tiny West African country’s history. There was hardly any improvement on the country’s worsening rights violations and impunity records. As usual, there were arbitrary arrests and in some cases, long detentions without trial largely by the notorious National Intelligence Agency (NIA). The period under review was thus characterised by one form of rights violation or the other.

General Overview

The Republic of Ghana covers a land area of 238,537 km2. It is bordered on the north by the Burkina Faso, west by Côte d’Ivoire, the east by Togo and south by the Gulf of Guinea. The country has a population of approximately 22 million.

General Overview

On October 2 1958, Guinea attained independence and proclaimed its sovereignty. Ahmed Sékou Touré, the first president of the country, one of the pioneers of the country’s independence, promised to make Guinea a prosperous country and the economic engine of Africa. In spite of the potentials of its subsoil, Guinea quickly lapsed into tyranny carefully orchestrated by Sékou Touré who sent some of the best sons of Guinea to the gallows. President Sékou Touré died on March 26, 1984, leaving as a legacy a country completely run down by 26 years of dictatorship and economic policies leaning towards socialism. On April 3, 1984, a Military Committee for National Recovery (CMRN) took over power. Colonel Lansana Conté was made the leader of the country by his comrades.

General Overview

The situation of both public and private media continued to be the same in 2009 as it was the year before. Lack of financial and material resources and a rush of young people into the profession persisted. For example, newspapers did not appear on the newsstands in the country due to the lack of recycled paper used for the production and circulation of newspapers. This difficulty caused a great deal of harm particularly to the private sector.

General Overview

Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in 2009 completed its two-year task of hearing from both victims and accused perpetrators of the country’s bloody civil war which ended in 2003.The report placed in categories people accused of bearing the greatest responsibilities of the 14-year old civil war which the country suffered and made recommendations which many viewed as “harsh penalties.”

July 29, 2010

General Overview

The political situation in 2009 was marked by communal and parliamentary bye-elections at Bougouni. Following the polls, Alliance for Democracy in Mali-African Party for Solidarity and Justice (ADEMA-PASJ) remained the leading political group in the country with 3185 elected local council members as at April 26, 2009. The Union for the Republic and Democracy (URD) with 1935 council members, came second, the Rally for Mali (RPM), the party of former Prime Minister Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, maintained its third position as third political force with 773 members, followed by the National Congress for Democratic Initiative (CNID) and the National Renaissance Party (PARENA). It was the recently established party, the Convergence for the Development of Mali (CODEM), which caused a sensation by coming up in the sixth position.

July 29, 2010

General Overview

After what many observers considered an exemplary democratic transition (August 2005-March 2007), Mauritania was thrown back into a deep political crisis following the military coup d’etat on August 6, 2008. In fact, on August 6, the presidential guards under the command of General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz arrested President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, who had been in power since April 2007; Mauritania’s first democratically elected President since the country’s independence in 1960. The political crisis borne of this coup reached its highest point between August 2008 and June 2009 with a strong protest against the arrival of the generals in power through force and their readiness to maintain power by any means.

July 29, 2010

General Overview

On December 22, 2008, the 9th anniversary of President Tandja Mamadou’s coming to power, a group of his supporters made a public declaration, asking Parliament to extend by three years, the President’s term of office in order to “enable him finish his major projects.” This proclamation — which was initially trivial — began to take shape from the beginning of 2009: a committee for the continuation of the President’s actions was set up. It went round the major cities of the country, where it held meetings which ended with statements either calling on President Tandja Mamadou to run for a third term, or asking him to stay on in power without any election. Whatever the particular case considered, supporters of President Tandja Mamadou were calling for a violation of Article 36 of the August 9, 1999 Constitution which provides that “The President shall be elected for five (5) years by free, direct, equal and secret universal suffrage.

July 29, 2010

General Overview

\The year 2009 started on a good note: at the end of the first quarter, there were only two reported cases of attacks on journalists and none of these attacks was carried out by government or any of its agencies. The Nigerian media grew out of a protest tradition that is rooted in the era of nationalism when her nationalists fought for her independence using the media as a very potent tool. The Nigerian media has therefore tended to survive and even thrive in the face of dictatorship than in times of legitimate governance.

July 29, 2010

General Overview

Located at the extreme west of the African continent, Senegal extends over an area of 196 722 square kilometres for a population estimated at nearly 12 million people, according to World bank 2006 figures. Senegal is bordered to the West by the Atlantic Ocean, (530 km of coastline), to the North by Mauritania, to the East by Mali, to the South by Guinea and Guinea Bissau. The southern part is separated from the rest of the country by The Gambia, wedged into Senegalese territory, along a 350-kilomter long strip of land along the banks of the River Gambia. The official language of Senegal, made up of mostly Muslims, is French. Its currency is the CFA Franc and the active population, according to the latest estimates (2006), is nearly 5 million.

July 29, 2010

General Overview

Reports have revealed that Sierra Leone is the fastest mover in the MO Ibrahim index. This is largely due to its democratic strides in recent years. In 2007, the country conducted its Presidential and Parliamentary elections described mostly by the international community as free and fair.

July 29, 2010

General Overview

Togo is a small country of 36,500 square kilometres in West Africa with a population of about 6 million inhabitants. It is bordered to the north by Burkina Faso, to the west by Ghana, to the east by Benin and in the south by the Atlantic Ocean.Independent from April 27, 1960, after German, English then French colonisation, its political life was marked by the assassination, on January 13, 1963, of the first elected president, the “Father of Independence”, Sylvanus Olympio, by a group of soldiers led by Gnassingbé Eyadéma.