Press and human rights

Two leading international rights organisations have called on Commonwealth leaders meeting in the South African east coast city of Durban from 12-15 November to do more to enshrine press freedom. The freedom of expression NGO, ARTICLE 19, and Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) said that too many journalists had been killed, tortured, detained, their work censored or their publications banned since the last Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting two years ago. Noting that 21 journalists had been killed in some of 52 nations represented in the Commonwealth, RSF said 260 journalists had been jailed or arrested and that 190 had been the victims of violence or torture. African nations singled out by RSF's international secretariat were Cameroon, Gambia, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The two organisations noted that Swaziland and Botswana were among 13 Commonwealth nations which had so far failed to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights guaranteeing freedom of the press. In a statement on Thursday, ARTICLE 19 said with Nigeria back in the Commonwealth and "Cameroon still getting away with it, the Commonwealth urgently needs a mechanism to deal with members’ chronic human rights problems before they get out of hand. It is time for the Commonwealth to lead the international community in tackling human rights problems among its members".