journalists


Lessons from Malawi for Leveson

Over the last two months the Leveson enquiry has been collecting evidence on the phone hacking scandals and other alleged press abuses which invade privacy. The evidence is being collected with a view to making recommendations for a new, more effective policy and regulatory regime.

All this was fresh in my mind as I read the latest edition of New Internationalist in which Mabvuto Banda wrote about the struggles in Malawi for press freedom.

2009: A Grim Year for Journalists

The massacre of 30 journalists in the Philppines (Somalia) last November has made 2009 the bloodiest year in history for journalists, according to a report published on the 17th of December by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Upon publication, the report stated that at last 68 journalists had been killed in 2009. The New Year has only served to confirm this, with a record-breaking total of 70 journalists confirmed killed, 40% more than in 2008 and the highest since CPJ started keeping records in 1992. Not the happiest thing to think about when looking back at 2009 then.