As part of its initiatives to promote press freedom and freedom of expression in West Africa, the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) monitors and reports the incidents of violations (threats and abuses) against media freedom, civic expression, and civil liberties as evidence for advocacy and redress.
This report provides an overview of the press freedom and freedom of expression situation in the region for the third quarter of 2025 (July-September). Overall, the leading incidents of violations recorded across the region were arrests and detentions, even though there were also physical assaults, threats, and suspensions of media outlets and the shutdown of an online platform.
Journalists, news media organisations, dissidents, and activists were the main victims while state actors particularly, security agencies and state/public officials, emerged the main perpetrators of violations and abuses. In most cases these violations were meant to gag critical voices and control public discourse. The involvement of state actors in such abuses also signal the systemic nature of the repression in many countries across the region, where journalists, activists and critical voices are treated as adversaries.
Between July and September 2025, for instance, widespread violations against journalists, activists and dissenting voices were cited in 13 out of the 16 countries in the region. The incidents ranged from multiple cases of arbitrary arrests and pretrial detentions to physical assaults, suspension of media outlets and sentencing of journalists and activists.
As a pushback mechanism against the incessant repression in the region, the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) continuously monitors, documents and publishes incidents of violations of freedom of expression and other developments that impact FOE in the region. The organisation regularly publishes alerts, statements, and analytical reports to inform stakeholders and support advocacy, litigation, and policy interventions at both national and regional levels for accountability and reform.
This report, covering the third-quarter of 2025 (July–September), presents findings from MFWA’s monitoring of freedom of expression, including environmental activism, across West Africa. The report, also known as the Freedom of Expression Monitor (The Monitor), outlines the methodology used, the violations recorded, analyses of the trends and highlights of reparations or remedial actions in the period under review.
The report concludes with a set of recommendations to relevant stakeholders, such as governments, state security agencies, news media organisations as well as ECOWAS and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The report urges these stakeholders to create, expand and sustain an enabling environment for journalists, media organisations, activists, dissidents, environmentalists, and other civic actors to operate and express themselves without fear of reprisal.
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