Africa

After receiving reports today of the arrest of seven senior Gambian journalists and press union leaders who criticized President Yahya Jammeh for remarks that bluntly refuted government involvement in the unsolved 2004 murder of an editor, we issued the following statement...

New York, June 12, 2009--The editor of a private newspaper in the Gambia has been in police custody since Wednesday because of a story that falsely reported the sacking of two government officials, according to local journalists.

New York, June 11, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists urges the Canadian and Australian governments to work for the immediate release of two freelance journalists who have been held captive in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, since August.

Last week, President Yahya Jammeh, at left, discussed the unsolved 2004 murder case of editor Deyda Hydara in an interview on "One on One," a weekly program on The Gambia Radio and Television Service. The government "has for long been accused by the international community and so-called human rights organisations for the murder of Deyda Hydara, but we have no stake in this issue," media reports quoted Jammeh as saying. "And up to now one of these stupid Web sites carries 'Who Killed Deyda Hydara'? Let them go and ask Deyda Hydara who killed him," The Point newspaper quoted him as saying. 

Somali journalists held an emotional press conference in Mogadishu today at the Sahafi Hotel after Sunday's fatal shooting of the former director of Shabelle Media Network. (Sahafi means "journalist" in Arabic.) Roughly 15 journalists from different news outlets announced they were suspending their work because of security concerns. "We can no longer operate independently and impartially, and our lives are in danger because of the chaotic situation in our country," said a statement signed by the journalists, who were mainly editors and producers at local radio and TV stations.

Journalism conferences discussing global trends often
inflate the real but intermittent risks faced by foreign correspondents from
wealthier nations who travel to and report from less stable regions of the
world. They do so at the expense of downplaying if not plain ignoring the much
greater risks faced by local journalists who live in such areas with their
families and report daily for homegrown, regional media. The Deutsche Welle
annual Global Media Forum in Bonn is not one of them.

New York, June 8, 2009--Following the attack by unidentified gunmen on two staff members of Radio Shabelle on Sunday that left one dead and one injured, the Committee to Protect Journalists called today for all sides in the ongoing conflict to allow journalists to carry out their work without fear of retribution.

Amnesty International paid special recognition last week to Ebrima B. Manneh, a Gambian journalist who has disappeared, at its prestigious annual Media Awards ceremony in London. As Amnesty International UK's campaigner for individuals at risk in Africa, I was thrilled to be present at the awards ceremony and to watch BBC News TV presenter Mishal Husain introduce a film clip about Manneh's tragic case in front of hundreds of world-class journalists and human rights activists.

On April 16, 2009, police in Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon, arrested James Mbouma, deputy managing editor of the weekly L'indépendant, in connection with a legal dispute over ownership of photographs he published.

Last week, President Isaias Afeworki of Eritrea, Africa's leading jailer of journalists, discussed press freedom during an extensive interview with Swedish broadcaster TV4. Afeworki, a revered guerrilla commander who led this Red Sea country to nationhood in 1993, banned Eritrea's budding private media in 2001 and threw journalists in secret prisons without charge or trial. Speaking to Swedish journalist Donald Boström from his palace in the capital, Asmara, Afeworki, at left, took questions on the fate of long-held journalist Dawit Isaac, an Eritrean with Swedish citizenship, and lashed out at critics of the country's press freedom record.