Africa

New York, September 1, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Gabonese government censorship and restrictions on media coverage of Sunday's presidential elections, including denials of accreditation to at least four international journalists.

New York, August 31, 2009--A magistrate in Zambia issued a summons today for the entire editorial staff of the southern African country's largest independent newspaper to appear in court on Wednesday on contempt charges, according to local journalists and news reports. The ruling was prompted by an op-ed commenting on the prosecution of the paper's news editor. 

New York, August 28, 2009--A Ugandan newspaper's critical caricature of President Yoweri Museveni led police to interrogate three journalists today on allegations of sedition, according to a defense attorney and local journalists. 

New York, August 26, 2009--Two Ethiopian journalists were thrown in prison on Monday after a judge convicted them under an obsolete press law in connection with coverage of sensitive topics dating back several years, according to local journalists and news reports.

New York, August 25, 2009--Four journalists from Uganda's largest independent newspaper are facing criminal prosecutions, joining four others already charged since 2007, according to local journalists and news reports.

New York, August 24, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists called today for an end to an ongoing government crackdown on independent journalists in Somaliland.

New York, August 24, 2009--Following the brutal murder on Sunday of radio journalist Bruno Koko Chirambiza in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo--the third journalist to be slain in the restive region since 2007--the Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Congolese authorities to end the alarming pattern of impunity in journalist murders.

Ahead of the first anniversary on Sunday, August 23, of the kidnapping in Mogadishu of Canadian Amanda Lindhout and Australian Nigel Brennan we issued the following statement today on behalf of the families of the two journalists...

August 2009

News from the Committee to Protect Journalists

New York, August 19, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists CPJ calls on Cameroonian authorities to reopen a private radio station shut down on Monday over a popular talk show.

About 20 paramilitary police summarily sealed the studios of Sky One Radio, based in the capital, Yaoundé, the station's president, Joseph Angoula Angoula, told CPJ. The station was accused of "recurring violations of legal and administrative regulations" of media laws, according to a statement on the Web site of Cameroon's Communications Ministry. The statement did not detail the violations.