Ethiopia sentenced Swedish journalists Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye to 11 years in prison for supporting terrorism and illegally entering the country. Ethiopia has a far-reaching Anti-Terrorism Proclamation, with seven journalists now imprisoned, and the world’s largest number of exiled journalists in the last decade.
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Burundian radio reporter Hassan Ravakuki was arrested by security agents of the National Intelligence Service (SNR). Charged with terrorism and his current whereabouts unknown.
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To mark IFEX’s International Day to End Impunity, we asked African writers who have contributed to Sampsonia Way to write about the importance of fighting impunity in their home countries.
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The South African periodical Chimurenga released a new issue designed to be a “time machine”, backdated to the week of May 18-24, 2008 during which several waves of xenophobic violence and protests spread across the country.
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Ethiopia’s anti-terrorism law criminalizes any reporting that authorities believe “encourages” or “provides moral support” to groups or causes that the government has labeled terrorist.
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This slide show features some of Tony Namate’s editorial cartoons. Namate recently published a book of his cartoons, The Emperor’s New Clods: Political Cartoons from Zimbabwe.
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In September of 2001, with the global media’s eye fixed on 9/11, independent newspapers were closed and ten journalists imprisoned. This slide show features the six journalists still in prison and the four who died in jail.
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In this interview, writer Philo Ikonya talks about her writing, activism, being a mother in exile, and freedom of expression in Kenya. Now president of PEN Kenya, Ikonya has been arrested multiple times for protesting, was severely beaten while in police custody in 2009.
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Tendai Frank Tagarira, a Zimbabwean writer currently living in Aarhus, Denmark, commemorated his one-year anniversary as an International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN) guest writer with a post he sent to Sampsonia Way.
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Excerpt from Kenya, Will You Marry Me? by Philo Ikonya, the exiled Kenyan poet and novelist. She is known for speaking out against injustice and corruption and has written extensively on governance, mass poverty and post-election violence in Kenya.
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