Africa

Journalist Dawit Isaac, co-founder of Eritrea's now-defunct leading newspaper Setit, has spent nearly 10 years in one of the reclusive Red Sea nation's secret prisons with no charges ever placed against him. Isaac's location and health status are currently unknown, as are those of at least 16 other journalists who CPJ believes are also being held incommunicado in the country.

New York, August 1, 2011--The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the decision by authorities in Puntland, Somalia's northeastern semiautonomous region, to set free reporter Faysal Mohamed Hassan on Sunday. Mohamed, who wrote for the private news site Hiiraan Online, was serving a prison sentence over a story claiming that two murdered men belonged to Puntland's security personnel.

The Senegalese state-controlled radio and TV Corporation, Radio Télévision Sénégalaise (RTS), is experiencing an internal struggle for editorial freedom as Senegal moves toward a presidential election on February 26, 2012. 

New York, July 28, 2011--Censorship of the press by the government of Guinean President Alpha Condé threatens the democratic strides made by the country in recent months, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

On Monday, Guinea's state-controlled media regulatory agency imposed a "temporary" ban on media coverage of the July 19 attack on the private residence of President Alpha Condé, silencing private radio and television talk programs in which critical questions were being raised about the episode. In such circumstances, Guinean listeners turn to foreign media outlets such as France's state-funded international broadcaster, Radio France Internationale (RFI), the most popular station in Francophone Africa. With programs such as "Appels Sur L'actualité," a daily news call-in show, RFI is considered by millions of African listeners to be an essential source of news and information. 

New York, July 26, 2011--Security services in Uganda are in flagrant violation of a 48-hour constitutional limit on pretrial detention with their imprisonment of a journalist for 13 days without charge, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

New York, July 25, 2011--The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes Thursday's ruling in Ethiopia to release on bail two journalists imprisoned on pre-trial detention for the last 15 months on vague criminal charges.

New York, July 22, 2011--Authorities in Ivory Coast detained a journalist on Thursday for moderating a TV talk show favorable to ousted former ousted president Laurent Gbagbo, according to local journalists. 

New York, July 21, 2011--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns sweeping arrests and attacks on journalists, as well as censorship by the administration of Malawi President Bingu Wa Muthiraka against media outlets reporting on nationwide antigovernment protests that erupted on Wednesday.