PEN SA Africa Pulse #9

Ethiopian journalist Anania Sorri released from prison

In a surprising move, after being kept in prison for four months after his arrest in November 2016, Anania Sorri, an Ethiopian journalist, was released from prison. Sorri is the third journalist to be released from jail since 1 December 2016.
Committee to Protect Journalists

Police officer convicted of assaulting a television journalist

A police officer in Uganda has been found guilty of assaulting a journalist. The former Division Police Commander (DPC) of Old Kampala, Joram Mwesigye, is, according to the Magistrate Court, guilty of assaulting WBS Television journalist Andrew Lwanga. Mwesigye was fined one million shillings (USD$282), with five million shillings (USD$1,409) as compensation to the assaulted journalist. The court made it clear that failure to make the payments within 30 days will result in Mwesigye spending a year in prison.
HRNJ Uganda

African whistleblowers need urgent protection

Governments do not like whistleblowers and as such will go to great lengths to silence them. African activists, lawyers and artists have come together to establish the Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa (PPLAAF). PPLAAF’s aim is to ensure a safe and secure ways in which whistleblowers can share sensitive documents and evidence with journalists and authorities and to shield them from government oppression and threats.
The Guardian

How an LGBTQI+ organisation is surviving in Kenya

“In Kenya, violence and discrimination against LGBTQI+ people is rife. Yet signs of growing tolerance and the recent lifting of bans that had made organisations supporting LGBTQI+ rights illegal can be attributed to the persistent lobbying and awareness raising by activists such as lawyer Eric Gitari.”
IFEX