Deby, who took power in a coup in 1990 but validated his position through elections in 1996 and 2001, sparked a wave of criticism at home and abroad in June when he pushed through constitutional changes allowing him to run for a third term in 2006.

One of the arrested journalists had written a piece criticising Deby’s constitutional changes. Previously the constitution limited presidents to two consecutive terms in office.

A number of journalists said the Deby government has become increasingly repressive towards the private media, which have been largely critical of Deby’s third-term ambitions.

…

Nadjikimo Benoudjita, president of the Chadian Association of Private Newspaper Editors (AEPT), said Chadian journalists are paying the price for criticising Deby and that he hopes their strike will help rally international support to stop the government crackdown.

“We want the pressure of international opinion to seize this government,” he said.

Not that you’d notice a news blackout in the West: Chad, one of the world’s poorest countries despite being an oil exporter, is also one of the least reported on in the world.

So what’s going on in the African country you probably haven’t heard of despite it being a petrolium-exporter that is deeply involved in the war on terror?

Well, the president recently won a referendum basically designed to install him for life and the government has been cracking down on the press.

Recently, four independent journalists have recently been jailed for “inciting hatred” — against the government.

In the most recent case, Sy Koumbo Singa Gali of L’Observateur was jailed for one year after she interviewed a government critic.

Meanwhile, the World Bank-funded oil pipeline project isn’t quite the model of transparency it was meant to be. The World Bank is very concerned about the finding of a recent report from Chad’s petrolium oversight organisation:

The report cites incidents of irregularities in transfers of funds; poor quality of, and long delays in the delivery of goods and services; and lack of competitive bidding processes, and cases of overpricing of goods and services. It also assesses that some local authorities were not informed of projects planned in locales under their administrative responsibility.

The full reports can be found here.

Subtitled “100 issues that the journalist in me feels the media should investigate”, the post nods at loads of interesting stories the author would like to hear more about.

I wasted some time trying to add some value by distilling it into a shorter, bullet-pointed list for the time-constrained, but it just isn’t possible (or appropriate). Read it all. If you’re short on time, scroll down and start reading at the cross-head “An African’s Perspective” That’s were the rapid-fire list of underreported stories is.

To find out more about the internet-based free press in Zimbabwe and The Zimbabwean’s remarkable editor, Wilf Mbanga, check out the stories by Blessing Ruzengwe over at Metrovox.

Update: Blessing Ruzengwe also has a story about the crackdown on internet cafés in the Zimbabwean itself.