# Ladder: detention and violence, in Africa

Arrest, detention, prosecution, imprisonment, physical harm or killing of journalists, where police, soldiers, officials or others acting for a government carried out, ordered or authorised the act. Harm by private people is recorded only when a government actor was involved.

The number of entries reflects the depth of this record, not the severity of a country's conduct.

Narrow with ?stage= (restrict, pressure, punish, silence, eliminate), ?continent=, ?from= and ?to= (year or date).

## Punish

Legal or physical action against individual journalists or sources: subpoenas and record seizures, prosecutions, arrests, detention, expulsions, visa denials, assault where a government actor is involved.

| Date | Country | Head of government | What was done | Outcome | Sources |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 29 December 2013 | [Egypt](https://thewaronnews.com/countries/eg) ([RSF 2026 rank: 169th of 180](https://rsf.org/en/index)) | [Adly Mansour](https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/adly-mansour) | Months after the military removed President Mohamed Morsi, Egyptian security forces arrested Al Jazeera English journalists Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed at a Cairo hotel; courts later convicted them of aiding a banned organization, and international pressure led to pardons. [Full entry](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2013-egypt-al-jazeera-journalists-jailed) | Reversed (23 September 2015) | 3 |
| 16 January 2025 | [Tunisia](https://thewaronnews.com/countries/tn) ([RSF 2026 rank: 137th of 180](https://rsf.org/en/index)) | [Kais Saied](https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/kais-saied) | The Committee to Protect Journalists found at least four journalists imprisoned under Tunisia's 2022 Decree-Law 54 on cybercrime as of January 2025, including radio hosts Mourad Zghidi and Borhen Bsaies, pushing the country's jailed-journalist count to its highest since 1992 under President Kais Sa… [Full entry](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2025-tunisia-record-journalists-jailed-decree-54) | Sustained | 2 |
| 3 September 2025 | [Ethiopia](https://thewaronnews.com/countries/et) ([RSF 2026 rank: 148th of 180](https://rsf.org/en/index)) | [Abiy Ahmed](https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/abiy-ahmed) | Ethiopian authorities arrested at least six journalists between August and September 2025, including three from Sheger FM after the Ethiopian Media Authority ordered the station to delete a broadcast it accused of bias and inciting violence, ahead of national elections scheduled for 2026. [Full entry](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2025-ethiopia-arrests-journalists-sheger-fm) | Ongoing (22 September 2025) | 1 |

## Silence

Removing outlets or channels from the public sphere: closures, licence withdrawals, forced sales, blocking and shutdowns, prior restraint, nationalisation.

| Date | Country | Head of government | What was done | Outcome | Sources |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 17 July 1950 | [South Africa](https://thewaronnews.com/countries/za) ([RSF 2026 rank: 21st of 180](https://rsf.org/en/index)) | [Daniel François Malan](https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/daniel-francois-malan) | Under Prime Minister Daniel François Malan, South Africa's parliament approved the Suppression of Communism Act in 1950, defining communism broadly enough to cover most opposition to apartheid. [Full entry](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1950-south-africa-suppression-of-communism-act) | Reversed (31 July 1991) | 4 |
| 19 October 1977 | [South Africa](https://thewaronnews.com/countries/za) ([RSF 2026 rank: 21st of 180](https://rsf.org/en/index)) | [Balthazar Johannes Vorster](https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/john-vorster) | On October 19, 1977, a day South Africans came to call Black Wednesday, the government banned the newspapers The World and Weekend World and had the Special Branch police arrest editor Percy Qoboza and deputy editor Aggrey Klaaste. [Full entry](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1977-south-africa-world-newspaper-banned-qoboza-detained) | Sustained (1 March 1978) | 4 |

## Eliminate

Long imprisonment, killing, disappearance or forced exile of journalists, with state involvement as the sources state it.

| Date | Country | Head of government | What was done | Outcome | Sources |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| July 1995 | [Nigeria](https://thewaronnews.com/countries/ng) ([RSF 2026 rank: 112th of 180](https://rsf.org/en/index)) | [Sani Abacha](https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/sani-abacha) | A special military tribunal convicted four Nigerian journalists as accessories to a supposed 1995 coup plot after they reported on it, sentencing them to lengthy prison terms with no right of appeal, under the military government of General Sani Abacha. [Full entry](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1995-nigeria-abacha-journalists-tribunal) | Reversed (15 June 1998) | 2 |
| 18 September 2001 | [Eritrea](https://thewaronnews.com/countries/er) (RSF rank: not recorded) | [Isaias Afwerki](https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/isaias-afwerki) | Eritrea's government closed every private newspaper and jailed at least nineteen journalists, including Dawit Isaac of the paper Setit, without charge or trial in September 2001, after suspending the constitution. Note: Eritrea jailed at least nineteen journalists without charge, trial or public acknowledgment of their fate after suspending its constitution, and has not accounted for several of them in over two decades; no United States detention in the record has approached that duration. [Full entry](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2001-eritrea-jails-journalists-indefinitely) | Ongoing | 3 |

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All ladders: https://thewaronnews.com/ladders. United States chapter: https://thewaronnews.com/united-states

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