CAIRO – Al Qaeda in North Africa has said it killed a French hostage, in a message carried by the Al-Jazeera satellite channel overnight Monday. The execution of Michel Germaneau was said to be in response to a raid last week by French and Mauritanian troops which targeted the radical group and killed six members of al-Qaeda’s North African branch. “We confirm that we have killed the hostage Germaneau in revenge for our six brothers who were killed in the treacherous operation,” an audio message from the group said. Al-Jazeera said the voice on the tape was that of Abu... Continue Reading
MOGADISHU – Amnesty International has called on Somali authorities and armed opposition groups in the country to respect freedom of expression amid a growing government crackdown on independent journalism. A campaign of harassment and intimidation has seen a spate of arrests and interrogations of journalists since June. Media workers already face serious threats from armed groups, with 10 reporters killed in the last 18 months. Amnesty International’s new briefing paper, Hard News: Journalists’ lives in danger in Somalia, launched on Somali Human Rights Day (22 July), documents the targeting of journalists in the country. “Somali journalists are being prevented from... Continue Reading
PRETORIA – There has been growing concern among freedom of expression groups as parliamentary hearings on the Protection of Information Bill begin in South Africa commenced yesterday. The International Press Institute expressed its concern over many of the provisions contained in the draft legislation, arguing that they should explicitly take into account journalists acting in the public interest. The original draft of the Protection of Information Bill is designed to regulate the classification procedures and also sets out penalties for disclosing confidential or secret state information. The bill was originated by the ministry of state security two years ago, but... Continue Reading
NAIROBI – Kenya has relinquished its position as the most corrupt country in East Africa to Burundi, according to the East African Bribery Index 2010 by Transparency International-Kenya. The index which has expanded to Rwanda and Burundi this year, ranks the latter at the top position with a corruption prevalence of 36.7% while Rwanda is the least corrupt country in the region with a prevalence of 6.6 %. Kenya, at third position, has registered a slight improvement in the prevalence of corruption, from a corruption prevalence rate of 45% in 2009, to 31.9% this year. Uganda comes second at 33%... Continue Reading
IRIN DAKAR, 23 July 2010 (IRIN) – Unsafe abortions account for more than one in 10 women who die in pregnancy in Ghana, according to new research by the US-based Guttmacher Institute, with ignorance of the law and inadequate facilities partly to blame, say health authorities. Abortion was declared legal in 1985 for women who have been raped, in cases of incest, or where the pregnancy will cause the mother physical or mental harm, but decades on, only 4 percent of women are aware of the law, according to 2009 government health statistics (based on 2007 data). Over half of... Continue Reading
