Africa

2010

  
Post-election violence killed some 1,200 people in Kenya after 2007 elections, when opposition supporters accused incumbent President Mwai Kibaki and his supporters of election rigging. (Reuters)

Kenyan radio station manager wanted at The Hague

Kenyan journalists assumed senior politicians from the ruling party and opposition would be singled out for inciting the public to kill after the 2007 presidential elections–but they were shocked to find out that one of their own has been named.  

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Kenyan journalist receives threats for investigating murder

New York, December 22, 2010–A Kenyan journalist whose reporting has helped expose and publicize the unsolved 2009 murder of reporter Francis Nyaruri received two anonymous threatening phone calls on Friday warning he could “share Nyaruri’s fate,” according to local journalists. The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on authorities to thoroughly investigate the threats and provide Sam Owida, a reporter…

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After officials are criticized, DRC radio host is arrested

New York, December 21, 2010–Authorities should immediately release Congolese radio journalist Robert Shemahamba, who has been held in the eastern city of Uvira since Friday in connection with a political program critical of local officials, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.

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'The media is now considered part of the opposition,' a civil society leader told CPJ. Seen here is 'opposition' station Radio Publique Africaine, in Bujumbura. (CPJ)

The good times are gone for Burundi’s press

After 2006, Burundi’s government and media relations seemed promising. The airwaves had been open to private broadcasters for years; the president held frequent press conferences, and the government commended the unified press for its professional 2010 pre-election coverage. “The president had organized an open dialogue with the press before the elections,” Information Minister Concilie Nibigira…

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Deyda Hydara Trust

Deyda Hydara, a friend and colleague murdered in impunity

I can still vividly recall how the news of Deyda Hydara’s killing was relayed to me on the morning of December 17, 2004, after I returned from a trip to Zambia the previous night. Very early that morning, I called his childhood friend and partner at The Point, Pap Saine, who told me: “They shot…

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ECOWAS court orders Gambia to pay tortured journalist

New York, December 17, 2010–Musa Saidykhan, who was detained for three weeks in 2006 by Gambian state security agents, was tortured and must receive compensation, a West African regional court ruled on Thursday.

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Rwandan adviser must retract accusation against editor

New York, December 16, 2010–A senior Rwandan presidential adviser should immediately retract a grave and unsubstantiated public accusation against a journalist, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. 

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As bombings spread, Pakistan deadliest nation

At least 42 journalists are killed in 2010 as two trends emerge. Suicide attacks and violent street protests cause an unusually high proportion of deaths. And online journalists are increasingly prominent among the victims. A CPJ special report

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A poster for this week's commemoration.

In Norbert Zongo case, 12 years of impunity

For Geneviève Zongo, every December 13 revives excruciating memories of the loss of her husband Norbert Zongo, editor of the weekly L’Indépendant. He was assassinated in 1998 while investigating the murder of a driver working at Burkina Faso’s presidential palace. More painful still is that the killers who ambushed Zongo’s car, riddling it with bullets and…

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Kavumbagu (AFP)

Mission Journal: Behind bars in Burundi

“They like me in here,” editor Jean-Claude Kavumbagu said of his fellow prisoners. But sub-Saharan Africa’s only jailed online journalist still pays protection money to stay safe in Bujumbura’s Mpimba Prison.The Net Press editor has been here since police arrested him on July 17. He was charged with treason over an article that questioned the competence of Burundi’s security…

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2010