Saoman Conteh

SIERRA LEONE REMAINS THE MOST DANGEROUS COUNTRY IN AFRICA for journalists. In 2000, Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels killed three reporters, bringing to 15 the total number of journalists killed in the war-plagued West African nation since 1997. The RUF alone is responsible for 13 of those deaths.

On May 3, World Press Freedom Day, CPJ placed RUF leader Foday Sankoh at the top of its annual list of the "Ten Worst Enemies of the Press." At the time, Sankoh was still a member of the government under a United Nations-brokered peace agreement, which made him chairman of the Management of Strategic Mineral Resources Committee.

New York, January 4, 2001 --- Of the 24 journalists killed for their work in 2000, according to CPJ research, at least 16 were murdered, most of those in countries where assassins have learned they can kill journalists with impunity.

This figure is down from 1999, when CPJ found that 34 journalists were killed for their work, 10 of them in war-torn Sierra Leone.

In announcing the organization's annual accounting of journalists who lost their lives because of their work, CPJ executive director Ann Cooper noted that while most of the deaths occurred in countries experiencing war or civil strife, "The majority did not die in crossfire. They were very deliberately targeted for elimination because of their reporting." Others whose deaths were documented by CPJ appear to have been singled out while covering demonstrations, or were caught in military actions or ambushes while on assignment.

Click here to read more about press freedom conditions in SIERRA LEONE

New York, May 24, 2000 --- The Committee to Protect Journalists is outraged by the latest murderous attack on journalists in Sierra Leone, which claimed the lives of two western journalists and left two others injured on Wednesday, according to news agencies and CPJ's sources in Freetown.

May 19, 2000

President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah
State House
Freetown, Sierra Leone

VIA FAX: 232-22-225-615

Your Excellency:

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply disturbed by recent serious press freedom violations in Sierra Leone. We are particularly concerned about the continued illegal detention of Abdoul Kouyateh, acting editor of the private Freetown weekly Wisdom Newspaper.