According to Reporters Without Borders, press freedom has improved in several countries and journalists in Benin, Botswana, Cape Verde, Ghana, Mali, Mauritius, Namibia and South Africa now enjoy freedoms close to those of their colleagues in Europe.

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Problems for the independent media in Africa

Journalists in C?te d'Ivoire, in both Abidjan (the capital in the south) and Bouak? (the main town in the rebel-held north), take big risks each day in doing their jobs. Forty were threatened or physically attacked during the year, nine arrested and 12 media outlets censored or had their premises ransacked.

The situation is very bleak in Eritrea, where there is no longer any privately-owned media, freedom of expression or foreign correspondents. Fourteen journalists and editors have been imprisoned in secret places without trial.

Things are not much better in Zimbabwe, where repeated government attacks on the Daily News have reduced the independent press to a couple of privately-circulated weeklies. In preparation for general elections in 2005, the government has banned the main opposition party from the state-owned media.

Press freedom has improved in several countries and journalists in Benin, Botswana, Cape Verde, Ghana, Mali, Mauritius, Namibia and South Africa now enjoy freedoms close to those of their colleagues in Europe.

Impunity still reigns however in Burkina Faso, where nobody has been punished six years after the murder of journalist Norbert Zongo.