Many African governments are stifling freedom of expression under the guise of tackling Covid-19, restricting access to information and undermining the basic human rights of ordinary citizens. They must be kept in check, says William Gumede.

This is an edited extract from a presentation at a webinar titled “On Democracy and Authoritarianism: Systems, Ideologies, Freedom, and Vulnerabilities in the era of COVID-19”, organised by the Human Sciences Research Council on 15 April 2020.

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