Africa 'must scrap insult laws'
By Peter Feuilherade
BBC Monitoring, Cape Town
African governments have been urged to abolish criminal defamation and
"insult" laws, which are in force in 48 of the continent's 53 countries.

Ghana is one of the few African nations with no "insult" laws
The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) congress in Cape Town heard that
legislation outlawing criticism of authority figures is "the greatest
scourge" of press freedom in Africa.
In its "Table Mountain Declaration", the body has urged African countries to
protect press freedom by scrapping the laws which prevent criticism of
leaders in particular.
The African press is crippled by repressive measures, which include the
jailing and harassment of journalists, WAN says.
Governments use these laws "ruthlessly, to prevent critical appraisal of
their performance and to deprive the public from information about their
misdemeanours", the WAN said.
Journalists under pressure
In the first five months of 2007, "insult" laws led to the harassment,
arrest or imprisonment of 103 journalists in 26 African countries, it added.

Raymond Louw, from the Southern Africa Report, said South Africa, Togo,
Ghana, Kenya and Mozambique were the only countries on the continent to have
no "insult" laws. Other nations showed little inclination to get rid of
them, he said.
Some delegates at the Cape Town congress said African governments "would not
hand out media freedom on a plate", and questioned whether WAN's call would
have any impact.
But the organisation hopes that because it speaks for 18,000 newspapers,
news agencies and press groups from more than 100 countries, its declaration
will have some impact on Africa's leaders.
Opening the WAN congress, South African President Thabo Mbeki said there was
particular anger over the apparent impunity enjoyed by some governments in
their actions against journalists.




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