# Ladder: secrets and espionage laws, in Africa

Laws that make it a crime to obtain, keep or disclose information a government has classified as secret, such as the Espionage Act, a 1917 United States law against disclosing defence information, or the Official Secrets Acts of the United Kingdom. Governments use them to prosecute journalists or, more often, the officials who gave journalists information.

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 |
| 14 July 2023 | [Zimbabwe](https://thewaronnews.com/countries/zw) ([RSF 2026 rank: 124th of 180](https://rsf.org/en/index)) | [Emmerson Mnangagwa](https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/emmerson-mnangagwa) | President Emmerson Mnangagwa signed the Patriotic Act, which criminalizes meeting foreign governments or officials with intent to harm Zimbabwe's sovereignty, with penalties up to death for advocating armed intervention and up to ten years for supporting sanctions, weeks before the country's 2023 g… [Full entry](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2023-zimbabwe-patriotic-act-criminalizes-foreign-contact) | Sustained (14 July 2023) | 2 |

## 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 |

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

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