Amid declining press freedom globally, East African countries enter “very serious” territory

Author: Devin Windelspecht, MSc

May 9, 2025

HRRC expresses concern over the deterioration of press freedom in Ethiopia, Uganda and Rwanda. We call on the nations’ governments to take measures to release unjustly imprisoned reporters and fully investigate and hold to account individuals or groups responsible for attacking and/or killing journalists. 

Journalist protest [Image credit: SABC via Africa News]

Ethiopia, Uganda and Rwanda are among three countries that have declined to Reporters without Borders’ (RSF) most severe press freedom ranking, amid a global fall in press freedom, especially in Africa, as journalists are routinely harassed, imprisoned, forced into exile and even killed for their work. 

The three nations join four other African countries already at the bottom of the index: Burundi, Somalia, Sudan, and RSF’s lowest globally ranked country, Eritrea. 

In Ethiopia, a government that initially signaled openness to the free press after the election of president Abiy Ahmed in 2018 – even hosting the World Press Freedom Day in 2019 – has since become one of the worst abusers of journalists on the continent following the outbreak of civil war in 2020. Journalists critical of the government or who have highlighted alleged war crimes by government soldiers have been targeted by raids on their offices and/or imprisoned. At least 12 journalists are currently imprisoned in the country for their reporting. 

In Uganda, press freedom has continued to deteriorate following President Museveni’s disputed reelection victory in 2021. Journalists have been increasingly subjected to violence by security forces, including 13 who were recently beaten by security forces and soldiers while covering elections in the country’s north in March. And in Rwanda, the government has continued to ban or suppress almost all independent reporting, while Rwanda-backed rebels in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo have reported to have intimidated journalists with death threats. 

In all three countries, the collapse in press freedom has gone hand-in-hand with the strengthening of authoritarian rule, as impunity for crimes against journalists coincides with erosion of other rights. The recent U.S. government’s attempts to shut down Voice of America, often the only source of independent reporting in these African countries, means that millions of people are increasingly at risk of lacking access to reliable and independent news in their own countries.

However, while press freedom in on a whole declining in Africa – with Mali and Burkina Faso, two countries that recently experienced military coups both falling in RSF’s rankings – many countries remain highly free for journalists to report: Namibia, South Africa, and Gabon all score higher today than the United States. 

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Glossary

• Alleged - events that have been reported, but not absolutely confirmed (or proven in a court of law).

• Authoritarian - a government system in which the ruling government uses its power to suppress or destroy alternate political parties, movements, and dissent to its rule. 

• Coup - a forceful seizure of political power, usually by military means. 

• Deterioration - becoming worse.

• Exile – choosing to flee your home country under justifiable fear of imprisonment or death without the ability to safely return.

• Harassment - online or physical threats, lawsuits, or rhetoric targeting journalists designed to make their reporting more difficult. 

• Independent reporting - journalism that is allowed to be carried out without a government, corporation, or other group controlling what it chooses to report and how.

• Intimidated - threatening with the goal of stopping reporting.

• Press Freedom - the ability for journalists to report freely without fear of being attacked, intimidated, harassed, or killed.

• Reliable - news that can be depended on to be factual and trustworthy.

• Security forces - police, anti-terrorism units, or other groups tasked with maintaining a country’s internal security. Usually separate from an army or military. 

• Suppress - make efforts to prevent the widespread reading of a story or given journalism outlet.

• War Crimes – an action carried out in a war that violates international rules of conflict, such as the Geneva Conventions.