Africa

On April 24, 2009, journalist El Malick Seck, who was serving a three-year prison sentence over an editorial implicating President Abdoulaye Wade and his son in an alleged money laundering scandal, was released on presidential pardon, according to local journalists and news reports. The sentence had been upheld in February. He was first imprisoned on August 28, 2008.

New York, May 27, 2009--A magistrate in Malawi should allow an opposition radio station sealed by police during general elections on May 19 to reopen, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. CPJ also called on authorities to drop criminal charges against two station presenters. 

New York, May 27, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the government of Gabon's crackdown on independent media coverage of President Omar Bongo's hospitalization and potential succession issues. Bongo, Africa's longest-serving head of state, has been in a Spanish hospital since earlier this month amid conflicting reports about his condition.

New York, May 26, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists is very concerned about the well-being of two captive journalists, a Canadian and an Australian, who urged their respective governments to work harder for their release in a phone call with a reporter on Sunday. Both journalists said they were sick and being held in harsh conditions.

New York, May 26, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply saddened by news that radio reporter Nur Muse Hussein died today as a result of gunshot wounds suffered while covering fighting in April. Hussein, left, a veteran correspondent for Radio IQK, suffered two bullet wounds to his right leg while reporting on clashes between militia groups in the central town of Beledweyn on April 20, according to the National Union of Somali Journalists.

New York, May 22, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists mourns this morning's death of radio journalist Abdirisak Mohamed Warsame, left, who was killed during renewed fighting in Somalia's war-ravaged capital, Mogadishu.

On May 7, 2009, the Court of Criminal Appeal in Abidjan, the commercial capital of Ivory Coast, confirmed the provisional release of French freelance photojournalist Jean Paul Ney, who had been detained on anti-state charges since December 2007 in the Maison d'Arrêt et de Correction d'Abidjan prison. French Secretary of State for Cooperation and Francophone Countries Alain Joyandet announced the release on May 6, after a meeting with President Laurent Gbagbo at his residence in the administrative capital, Yamoussoukro. A lower court had already decided on March 20 to release Ney on bail, but the public prosecutor had appealed the ruling.  

Franchou Namegabe Nabintu, an award-winning journalist from the Democratic Republic of Congo, operates in one of the most dangerous regions for journalists in Africa. She is a founding member of the South Kivu's Association of Women Journalists (AFEM), which has trained female journalists and presents radio programs spotlighting women's issues, especially in rural areas. CPJ interviewed Nabintu, at left, on Tuesday, on the heels of her stirring testimony before the U.S. Senate last week to discuss the challenges of reporting in the volatile eastern province of South Kivu, where violence against women is commonplace. 

New York, May 19, 2009--Authorities in Malawi should immediately release three journalists arrested today in a police raid on an opposition radio station, the Committee to Protect Journalists said. The country is holding general elections between today and Thursday.

In Madagascar, dozens of journalists took to the streets of the capital, Antananarivo, to protest the imprisonment of radio presenter Evariste Ramanatsoavina, held since May 4. Ramanatsoavina, a presenter with Radio Mada, a now-banned station owned by ousted president Marc Ravalomanana, faces charges in connection with the station's political commentary. The case illustrates the volatile struggle for political control of this Indian Ocean island nation--a battle being waged in large part through partisan media outlets.