Get Guardian on GoogleOpen West Africa has launched a platform to monitor and strengthen civic space across West Africa. The civil society organisation is a platform focused on monitoring civic freedoms, promoting transparency in West Africa, and supporting active citizen participation.
As the region faces increasing limitations on free expression, assembly, access to information, and civil society activities, OpenWest Africa provides a platform for citizens, journalists, policymakers, and researchers to access clear, reliable, and easily understandable information about civic openness.
Across the sub-region, civic space is shifting rapidly. Some countries have seen growing restrictions on media, online freedoms, peaceful protests, and civil society operations. Others face governance challenges linked to insecurity, political transitions, or weakening public institutions.
The mid-term report by Media Rights Agenda (MRA) documented 141 attacks on journalists, media workers, and ordinary citizens for the peaceful expression of their views on a variety of issues, including governance, economic hardship, and the security situation in the country, among others.
Nigeria continues to crack down on journalists and media workers under the guise of national security. Across Africa, journalists are being kidnapped, tortured and killed often by people whose identities are known, but who face no punishment.
Reports gathered by press freedom groups show these incidents spreading from Burkina Faso to Guinea, Nigeria and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where journalists who refuse to toe the line are silenced or forced to flee. Cameroon faces a significant crackdown on journalism, marked by government repression, arrests, suspensions of media outlets, internet shutdowns, and increased dangers for reporters, especially those covering the Anglophone crisis or criticising the government.
While the government cites national security and hate speech, rights groups and journalists say these actions aim to silence criticism of President Paul Biya’s regime and stifle reporting on abuses, leading to widespread self-censorship and a hostile environment for independent media.
