Brian Pellot: Quality overlooked in rush to spread digital access
Quality overlooked in rush to spread digital access
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CATEGORY: Africa
British theatre producer freed in Uganda
David Cecil, who faced jail for putting on a “gay” play, has seen charges dropped after an Index campaign. Milana Knezevic reports
South African public broadcaster embraces censorship to protect President Zuma
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) promised to change its ways in an out-of-court settlement over a blacklisting scandal but hope of real change has been engulfed by a wave of censorship at the public broadcaster since the start of...
After court appeal ANC decides to allow Zuma no confidence vote — but in February
South Africa’s highest court, the Constitutional Court, last week agreed to hear an application about a motion of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma. A High Court judge’s findings suggested that “the public are entitled to hear the debate” as...
Banning Lady Gaga — South Africa’s media take a stand
US pop superstar Lady Gaga’s first sojourn to South Africa has raised the hackles of newspaper editors and religious fundamentalists alike. Local organisers Big Concerts informed the press that, while journalists would be admitted, no press...
“Secrets kill democracy” — Activists protest oppressive secrecy bill
South Africa's Right2Know Campaign (R2K) is “Camping out for Openness” outside parliament in Cape Town this week as deliberations over the draconian Protection of State Information Bill draw to a close. The National Council of Provinces, the second...
Calls for insult laws to protect South African President Zuma from criticism
The South African Communist Party (SACP) this week made a public call for a law to be instituted to protect the country’s president against "insults". The call, by one of its provincial branches, was in response to growing public outrage about R240...
Anti-Boer song ignites incitement debate
In South Africa, the singing of "struggle songs" remains a bone of contention. Some South Africans contend, along with the courts, that songs should be banned when their lyrics incite violence. Other South Africans regard the songs as a way to...
Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka on free speech and the “false intellectualisation” of Jihadist violence
Nigerian poet Wole Soyinka knows something about the dangers of speaking out. In 1967 the Nobel Prize winner was arrested and held in solitary confinement for two years after criticising the Nigerian government, a military coup had taken place in...
South Africa’s president Zuma drops libel case over “rape” cartoon
South Africa’s president Jacob Zuma dropped his defamation lawsuit against the country’s most prominent newspaper cartoonist, Zapiro.
Freedom of expression in Africa. Index on Censorship covers free speech, freedom of religion, artistic freedom on the continent of Africa.