2005
UGANDA
NOVEMBER 15, 2005 POSTED: December 2, 2005 The Monitor HARASSED The government has threatened to close Uganda’s leading independent daily The Monitor over a story about President Yoweri Museveni’s first choice for army chief. Conrad Nkutu, managing director of The Monitor, told the Committee to Protect Journalists that the authorities demanded that the paper retract…
Two more Ethiopian journalists detained in growing crackdown
New York, November 14, 2005—Ethiopian authorities have detained another two editors, bringing the number of journalists arrested since political unrest erupted two weeks ago to eight. Sources told CPJ that security forces arrested Andualem Ayle of the private, Amharic-language weekly Ethiop, and Nardos Meaza of the private, Amharic-language weekly Satanaw, sometime last week.
French journalist stabbed
New York, November 14, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists voiced outrage today at the assault on a French reporter in Tunis and the failure of police nearby to intervene. Reporter Christophe Boltanski of the French daily Libération was beaten and stabbed by four men late Friday near his hotel in the capital’s diplomatic quarter, which…
Australian freelancer released from police custody
New York, November 14, 2005—Australian freelance journalist Andrew Mueller was released on Sunday after two days in police custody in southwestern Cameroon. Mueller was arrested in the town of Kumbo on Friday after interviewing members of the Southern Cameroon National Council (SCNC), which claims a separate state for Anglophone Cameroonians. He was later transferred to…
PAKISTAN
NOVEMBER 14, 2005 Posted: December 2, 2004 Mast FM 103 CENSORED The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PERMA) raided the Karachi-based Mast FM 103, seizing its transmission equipment and halting its broadcasts, according to press reports. The station was accused of violating the ban on the rebroadcast of foreign news, in this case a BBC…
NIGER
NOVEMBER 12, 2005 Posted: December 8, 2005 Salifou Soumaila Abdoulkarim, Le Visionnaire IMPRISONED, LEGAL ACTION Abdoulkarim, director of the private newspaper Le Visionnaire, was placed in “preventive detention” at police headquarters in the capital, Niamey, after State Treasurer Siddo Elhadj brought a criminal defamation suit against him. Abdoulkarim was transferred to prison on November 17…
NIGER
NOVEMBER 12, 2005 POSTED: December 2, 2005 Salifou Soumaila Abdoulkarim, Le Visionnaire IMPRISONED Salifou Soumaila Abdoulkarim, director of the private weekly Le Visionnaire, was arrested November 12 and placed in preventive detention after State Treasurer Siddo Elhadj filed a defamation suit.
CPJ disturbed by court’s failure to check repression of the media
New York, November 11, 2005 —Nepal’s Supreme Court today rejected media petitions for the suspension of a draconian new law that bans FM radio news broadcasts and curbs critical newspaper coverage. The Supreme Court is expected to issue a final ruling on the constitutionality of the law, which the government issued in October, in the…