Meanwhile, in Mali. . .

. . .they've just blown their wonderful press freedom position by prosecuting five journalists and a teacher for "insulting Mali's president" over a school creative writing assignment in which students were asked to write a humorous essay about the (fictional) mistress of a (fictional) president. Malian defence lawyers, quite rightly, boycotted the sentencing.

At least you don't get much of the sub-sub-News of the World/National Enquirer level of reportage that is so common in Nigeria.

But what a way to spoil an increasingly good record on press freedom. And now I've got to re-write the "Media" paragraph in the Mali chapter. . .