Pluralistic African Press, 'HFODUHWKDW Observe that despite numerous opportunities for a free press to emerge from national independence, fullyfledged press freedom still does not exist in many African countries and that murder, imprisonment, torture, banning, censorship and legislative edict are the norm in many countries, African states must recognise the indivisibility of press freedom and their responsibility to respect their commitments to African and international protocols upholding the freedom, independence and safety of the press, and Recognise that these crude forms of repression are bolstered by the deliberate exclusion of certain newspapers from state-advertising placement, the burden of high import taxes on equipment and newsprint and unfair competition from state-owned media, Note that despite the adoption of press freedom protocols and the repression of that freedom on a wide scale in Africa, the African Union in instituting its African Peer Review Mechanism under the NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa’s Development) programme has excluded the fostering of a free and independent press as a key requirement in the assessment of good governance in the countries of the continent, and To further that aim by, as a matter of urgency, abolishing ``insult’’ and criminal defamation laws which in the five months of this year have caused the harassment, arrest and/or imprisonment of 229 editors, reporters, broadcasters and online journalists in 27 African countries (as outlined in the annexure to this declaration), Call on African governments as a matter of urgency to review and abolish all other laws that restrict press freedom, Call on African governments that have jailed journalists for their professional activities to free them immediately and to allow the return to their countries of journalists who have been forced into exile, Identify as the greatest scourge of press freedom on the continent the continued implementation of “insult laws,” which outlaw criticism of politicians and those in authority, and criminal defamation legislation, both of which are used indiscriminately in the vast majority of African states that maintain them and which have as their prime motive the ``locking up of information’’, Condemn all forms of repression of African media that allows for banning of newspapers and the use of other devices such as levying import duties on newsprint and printing materials and withholding advertising, 6R7KLVLV'HPRFUDF\" Call on African states to promote the highest standards of press freedom in furtherance of the principles proclaimed