Eritrea: Eritrea is Africa's biggest prison for the press

Eritrea has been in an extended news blackout since September 2001 when the government closed the privately-owned newspapers and imprisoned the leading journalists. On the eve of the third anniversary since the round-up of journalists and the elimination of the independent press in Eritrea, Reporters Without Borders renewed its call to the authorities to free the detained journalists and let the privately-owned media resume working so that Africa's youngest nation may cease to also be the continent's biggest prison for the press.