South Africa's parliament yesterday approved a controversial bill aimed at protecting state secrets. Dubbed the "secrecy bill" by its critics, the Protection of State Information bill was passed by 189 votes to 74. Campaigners against the...
Brian Pellot: Quality overlooked in rush to spread digital access
David Cecil, who faced jail for putting on a “gay” play, has seen charges dropped after an Index campaign. Milana Knezevic reports
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) promised to change its ways in an out-of-court settlement over a blacklisting scandal but hope of real change has been engulfed by a wave of censorship at the public broadcaster since the start of...
South Africa’s highest court, the Constitutional Court, last week agreed to hear an application about a motion of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma. A High Court judge’s findings suggested that “the public are entitled to hear the debate” as...
US pop superstar Lady Gaga’s first sojourn to South Africa has raised the hackles of newspaper editors and religious fundamentalists alike. Local organisers Big Concerts informed the press that, while journalists would be admitted, no press...
South Africa's Right2Know Campaign (R2K) is “Camping out for Openness” outside parliament in Cape Town this week as deliberations over the draconian Protection of State Information Bill draw to a close. The National Council of Provinces, the second...
The South African Communist Party (SACP) this week made a public call for a law to be instituted to protect the country’s president against "insults". The call, by one of its provincial branches, was in response to growing public outrage about R240...
In South Africa, the singing of "struggle songs" remains a bone of contention. Some South Africans contend, along with the courts, that songs should be banned when their lyrics incite violence. Other South Africans regard the songs as a way to...
Nigerian poet Wole Soyinka knows something about the dangers of speaking out. In 1967 the Nobel Prize winner was arrested and held in solitary confinement for two years after criticising the Nigerian government, a military coup had taken place in...
Freedom of expression in Africa. Index on Censorship covers free speech, freedom of religion, artistic freedom on the continent of Africa.