Africa: The growing militia threat to Africa's journalists

When the various media watchdogs sit down to collate their annual lists of the travails that African journalists on the continent continue to confront, there will be a feeling that this year has been a particularly tough one. Since the year began a total of 15 journalists have been killed in Somalia, mainly in attacks attributed to the Islamic militant group Al-Shabaab. Others have got off more lightly. In August, Malian radio reporter Malik Maiga Aliou was kidnapped during a live broadcast and beaten and left for dead at a cemetery in the rebel-head northern city of Gao.