Port Louis, Mauritius (PANA) - Torrential rains that pounded Mauritius daily for more than a week, causing floods in almost all parts of the island, made the headlines this week. Full text...

Banjul, Gambia (PANA) - The government of President Adama Barrow has raised concern on signs of intolerance in the Gambian media, particularly those of a religious nature, despite expressing its continued commitment to a free media, according at statement made available to PANA on Friday.Full text...

Banjul, Gambia (PANA) - Somaliland authorities should immediately release Mohamed Aabi Digaale, the Hargeisa bureau chief for the London-based broadcaster Universal TV, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Wednesday. Full text...

Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) - Tunisian Journalists' Trade Union (SNJT) and the general news trade union (SGI) have reaffirmed their strong determination to fight corruption in the media sector and guarantee transparency in the financing of broadcasting houses. Full text...

Banjul, Gambia (PANA) - The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on the Ethiopian authorities to drop an incitement charge against Zone 9 blogger, Atnafu Berhane. Full text...

Banjul, Gambia (PANA) - The Gambia Press Union (GPU) has welcomed the ruling by the Abuja-based ECOWAS Court of Justice on Wednesday that ordered the government to repeal the laws of sedition, criminal defamation, false publication on the internet and false publication and broadcasting. Full text...

Banjul, Gambia (PANA) - Media watchdog, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), has called on the Gambian government to act on a judgment passed by a sub-regional court and “immediately repeal its laws on criminal libel, sedition and false news”. Full text...

Banjul, Gambia (PANA) – The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Wednesday welcomed the release of two Ethiopian journalists, Eskinder Nega and Woubshet Taye, from custody. Full text...

Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) - Rwanda's media regulatory body has suspended a Christian community radio station's operating licence for three months, after it aired what authorities considered as hatred remarks against women by a local pastor. Full text...

Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) - Media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders (RWB), has denounced the decision of Tunisian religious party Ennahdha to prosecute journalists and media houses considered as "hostile". Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - The Director-General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, says education must become the priority in development aid. Full text...

Monrovia, Liberia (PANA) - The Press Union of Liberia (PUL) on Thursday condemned the “cruel violence” meted out against journalists covering the upper house of the Liberian parliament, the Senate, on January 31. Full text...

Paris, France (PANA) - UNESCO has invited governmental and non-governmental entities, civil society actors and individuals active in strengthening foundations for peace and tolerance to propose candidates for the 2018 UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize for the Promotion of Tolerance and Non-Violence. Full text...

Paris, France (PANA) - UNESCO Director-General, Audrey Azoulay, has advocated for education as a priority investment for sustainable development in Africa. Full text...

Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) - Hundreds of people on Thursday turned up for the burial of veteran Rwandan journalist, Casmiry Kayumba, former publisher of Ukuri weekly newspaper, who died of heart attack on Tuesday. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The Committee to Protect Journalists has named its global Press Oppressors - world leaders who use rhetoric, legal action and censorship to try to silence their critics. Full text...

Lomé, Togo (PANA) - Media watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is asking the Nigerian authorities to immediately release Timothy Elombah, editor of the news website Elombah. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - A Somaliland regional court has sentenced journalists Mohamed Abdilaahi Dabshid and Ahmed Dirie Liltire to two years in prison on charges of conducting propaganda against the state, bringing Somaliland into contempt and "bringing the flag or national emblem of a foreign state" into contempt. Full text...

Port Louis, Mauritius (PANA) - The New Year festivities were marked in Mauritius by the passage of tropical cyclone Ava, near the coast of the island, which brought heavy winds and a lot of rain, thus disrupting the first days of work of 2018. Full text...

Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) - Former publisher of the weekly Rwanda Focus, Shyaka Kanuma, has been released from prison after serving one year in prison over tax evasion charges, a judicial source confirmed Friday in Kigali. Full text...

Monrovia, Liberia (PANA) - Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned an attack by gunmen on the Kinshasa home of Tshivis Tshivuadi, the secretary-general of the Congolese media freedom NGO, Journalist in Danger (JED). Full text...

Paris, France (PANA) – The head of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has voiced “deep regret” over Israel's decision to withdraw from the agency. Full text...

Cairo, Egypt (PANA) – Egyptian journalist Mahmoud Hussein on Friday marks one year in pretrial detention without proper due process, Human Rights Watch said. Full text...

Banjul, Gambia (PANA) - For the second year in a row, the number of journalists imprisoned for their work hit a historic high, as the U.S. and other Western powers failed to pressure the world’s worst jailers--Turkey, China, and Egypt--into improving the bleak climate for press freedom, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Wednesday. Full text...

Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - Changes in traditional media and growing use of social media are offering new avenues for “migrant-led” media and journalism as well as a unique opportunity for migrants to highlight their concerns and contributions – in their own words – the United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM) has said. Full text...

Ebène , Mauritius (PANA) - The third edition of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) - MERCK Africa Research Summit (MARS) opened on Tuesday at Ebène, in the centre of the island. Full text...

Paris, France (PANA) – The head of the United Nations agency defending press freedom on Tuesday denounced the killing of a Nigerian photographer, calling for an investigation into the incident. Full text...

Banjul, Gambia (PANA) – The African Media Initiative (AMI) on Monday organized its third edition of the “ZIMEO Excellence in Media Awards” recognizing nine journalists as winners and 18 runners-up in a programme held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.Full text...

Monrovia, Liberia (PANA) – Liberian newspapers were Monday awash with banner headlines on a decision by the Supreme Court denying the ruling Unity Party (UP) request for the intervention of the court in a matter with the National Elections Commission (NEC). Full text...

Paris, France (PANA) – The media industry, which remains the primary source of news and information in the digital age, faces both vast opportunities and steep challenges, the United Nations cultural agency said on Monday in its flagship analysis of new trends in media freedom, pluralism, independence and the safety of journalists. Full text...

Banjul, Gambia (PANA) – The Accra-based Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) on Monday hailed the Gambia government’s decision to comply with rulings made by a sub-regional court in favour of three Gambian journalists.Full text...

Kinshasa, DR Congo (PANA) - Journalist in Danger, a media watchdog, has urged the international community to increase pressure on DR Congo government to sanction perpetrators of abuses against press freedom. Full text...

Paris, France (PANA) – Justice must be done for the murder of journalists, who perform important functions in taking forward fundamental freedoms and bolstering the strength of societies, a senior United Nations official said on Thursday, marking the International Day to end impunity for crimes against them. Full text...

Banjul, Gambia (PANA) - A lack of justice in the murders of journalists can perpetuate a cycle of violence and impunity lasting a decade or more, media watchdog Committee to Protect Journalist (CPJ) has said in a new report released on Wednesday. Full text...

Accra, Ghana (PANA) - Ghana's Seth Kwame Boateng, a journalist from Multimedia Broadcasting Limited, won the Western Africa Media Excellence Award on Saturday night in Accra, Ghana, PANA reported. Full text...

Paris, France (PANA) - UNESCO’s General Conference, taking place in Paris, France, from 30 October to 14 November, will bring together all of the Organization’s 195 Member States to its 39th session to approve the Organization’s budget and the direction of its programmes and activities for the next two years. Full text...

Monrovia, Liberia (PANA) – Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has expressed umbrage at displays on social media that are “extremely inimical” to the survival of the country’s peace and democracy. Full text...

Banjul, Gambia (PANA) - The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) on Saturday condemned unequivocally the molestation of a journalist by a traditional chief in Ghana. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Cameroonian authorities to immediately halt the prosecution of three journalists after a judge on 9 October changed the charges against them in mid-trial.Full text...

Paris, France (PANA) - The 58 members of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) Executive Board on 13 October nominated Audrey Azoulay of France for the position of Director-General of the Organization, replacing outgoing Director-General Irina Bokova.Full text...

Accra, Ghana (PANA) – Last Saturday night’s explosion at a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) filling station in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, that has claimed seven lives, injured scores of people, destroyed vehicles and other property and triggered directives by the government to forestall future accidents dominated the Ghanaian media this week. Full text...

Freetown, Sierra Leone (PANA) - President of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ), Kelvin Lewis, has called on journalists not to cover political party events where their safety could not be guaranteed. Full text...

Washington, D.C., US (PANA) - The US announced on Thursday that it has decided to withdraw from the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and will seek to establish a permanent observer mission to the UN cultural agency but the UN agency has expressed profound regret at the US' action. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - Media watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Zimbabwean authorities to immediately release NewsDay journalist Kenneth Nyangani and drop all charges against him. Full text...

Accra, Ghana (PANA) – The Ghanaian media last week highlighted the verdict by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in a maritime dispute between West African neighbours Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire that favoured Ghana. Full text...

Paris, France (PANA) - The 58 members of the UNESCO’s Executive Board will hold their 202nd session from 4 to 18 October, chaired by Ambassador Michael Worbs of Germany, at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France. Full text...

Accra, Ghana (PANA) - Ghana's main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) on Friday slammed the communications regulator for 'draconian' penalties, including closure, slapped on scores of radio stations, warning that they have grave implications for press freedom and media pluralism in the country.Full text...

Accra, Ghana (PANA) - Ghana's communications regulatory body has swooped on radio stations operating in the country slapping various sanctions on 131 of them including hefty fines and revocation of licences following a nationwide FM Spectrum Audit. Full text...

Accra, Ghana (PANA) - An Accra-based radio station highly critical of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the government has been shut down by the communications regulatory authorities over unpaid licence fee, the local media in the Ghanaian capital reported on Thursday. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Ugandan authorities must stop threatening to close media outlets simply for doing their job, said Amnesty International today after the country’s media regulator vowed to close down media houses for broadcasting live.Full text...