Kwaku Asante, Author at Media Foundation For West Africa

Poor welfare biggest threat to female journalists’ safety in Nigeria

.Feb 8, 20231KViews 0Likes 0Comments

Poor welfare has been identified to be at the heart of challenges faced by female journalists in Nigeria, according to a study by the International Press Centre (IPC) in Nigeria. The study, which was carried out in collaboration with the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) with financial support from IFEX, also cited intimidation, harassment,…

What’s the cost of information under Ghana’s access to information law?

Access To InformationFeb 8, 20232KViews 0Likes 0Comments

A major challenge that has encumbered the implementation of the Right to Information (RTI) Law 2019 (Act 989), Ghana’s access to information law, is the fee burden that applicants must bear for information requests. For a long time, the law did not specify the amount public institutions should charge. It only presented a conditionality to the…

West Africa: Crackdowns on protestors trigger 9% increase in FOE violations

Free Expression ViolationsJan 26, 2023789Views 0Likes 0Comments

West Africa experienced a decline in freedom of expression in the third quarter of 2022 as violations rose by 9% during the period compared to the previous quarter. The MFWA’s Freedom of Expression Monitor revealed that forty-six (46) violations affecting a total number of 254 victims were recorded in eight (8) countries between July…

Major boost for press freedom: Court orders Police Chief, Attorney General to apologise to abused journalist

Impunity, Safety of JournalistsJan 16, 20231KViews 0Likes 0Comments

Press freedom in Ghana received a major boost on Friday, January 13, 2023, with a court ordering the heads of three major State institutions to apologize to a journalist whose rights were abused. The Human Rights Division Court 2 in Accra ruled that Ghana’s National Security Coordinator, the Inspector General of Police and the Attorney…

Ahmed Suale’s killing: 4 years of assurances, denials, inertia and silence

Safety of JournalistsJan 16, 20232KViews 0Likes 0Comments

January 16th remains a blood-stained day on the calendar of press freedom in Ghana because of the grisly memory it carries of Ahmed Hussein Suale - It was on this day in 2019 that the investigative journalist was gunned down gangland style in Accra, Ghana. Under better circumstances, his family, friends and loved ones, should…

Detained Senegalese journalist Pape Ale Niang released for the second time

Safety of JournalistsJan 12, 2023987Views 0Likes 0Comments

A judge in Dakar has ordered the release of prominent Senegalese journalist and government critic, Pape Ale Niang, who was detained for the second time in two months. The judge on January 10, 2023, ordered the release of the journalist subject to judicial control and other conditions including prohibition from commenting on the substantive case…

Nigeria 2023 elections: Media coverage under serial suppression

Press FreedomJan 10, 20232KViews 0Likes 0Comments

Nigeria will hold its seventh general elections in the democratic era in February 2023 with the build-up to the polls proving ominous for the media. President Muhammadu Buhari, a retired military general, had promised that one of the legacies he would leave behind is free and fair elections, in emulation of his predecessor, Dr. Goodluck…

Senegalese Journalist Pape Alé Niang arrested again

Safety of JournalistsDec 22, 20221KViews 0Likes 0Comments

The Senegalese authorities have rearrested Pape Ale Niang, five days after the journalist was provisionally released from one month’s detention. Niang, who is the owner and editor of the news website Dakar Matin, was first arrested on November 6, 2022, on charges of false publication and undermining national security. The police arrested Niang for the second…

Sierra Leone’s press freedom situation: The good, the bad and the ugly

Press Freedom, Safety of JournalistsDec 21, 20223KViews 0Likes 0Comments

Sierra Leone repealed its criminal libel and seditious laws (Part V of the Public Order Act of 1965) in 2020. Thereafter, press freedom has been expanding in the country with the progress story punctuated by improvements in the legal environment, development of press freedom watchdog institutions and a consolidation of the architecture of these institutions.…

MFWA welcomes release of Pape Ale Niang, demands charges be dropped

Press Freedom, Safety of JournalistsDec 19, 20221KViews 0Likes 0Comments

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) welcomes the release of Pape Ale Niang from detention and urges the Senegalese authorities to drop all charges against the journalist. The managing editor of the online newspaper, Dakar Matin was released provisionally on December 14, 2022, after his lawyers’ application to that effect was granted by the…

Detention of Senegalese journalist : MFWA petitions UN bodies, AU and ECOWAS leaders

Safety of JournalistsDec 13, 20221KViews 0Likes 0Comments

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has petitioned a number of UN bodies, Africa Union and ECOWAS leaders to help release Senegalese journalist Pape Ale Niang who has been detained for over a month now. “The journalist is on hunger strike and his health is failing. Consequently, we are requesting your intervention with the…

Meet the journalists selected for the Climate Change Journalism Fellowship

Climate Change Journalism, Journalism for ChangeDec 12, 20222KViews 0Likes 0Comments

The call for application for the Climate Change Journalism Fellowship (CCJF) programme received over 400 entries from the ten 10 countries in West Africa where the applications were announced. The Media Foundation for West Africa selected 10 journalists, five females and five males, out of the entries that were received. Thus, one journalist was admitted…

Author page: Kwaku Asante

Kwaku Asante