Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is appalled to learn that your government has ordered the Burundian army to treat journalists as legitimate military targets. On September 9, Your Excellency’s Defense Minister, Colonel Alfred Nkurunziza, said in a speech broadcast on state radio that the army should consider all journalists as enemies, and therefore legitimate targets, if they entered the Bujumbura Rurale province near the capital, where the army is fighting ethnic Hutu rebels.
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a nonpartisan organization dedicated to the defense of press freedom worldwide, is writing to protest in the strongest terms against the continued detention of Raphael Lakpe and Jean Khalil Sylla, publisher and reporter, respectively, at the independent daily newspaper Le Populaire.
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) deeply regrets the six-month jail sentence handed down to Tony Gachoka, publisher of The Post on Sundaymagazine, for contempt of court, and the exorbitant fine imposed on his publishing firm. Not only is the penalty disproportionate to the alleged offense, but the fairness of Gachoka’s trial is also in question.
Dear Lt. Col. Olokulade, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a non-partisan organization committed to the defense of press freedom worldwide, is deeply concerned about a number of attacks on the press in Freetown in recent days. An ECOMOG officer was directly involved in one attack. In another case, an ECOMOG officer stood by and did nothing to intervene.
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a nonpartisan organization dedicated to the defense of press freedom worldwide, is writing to protest in the strongest terms against the recent arrest of three journalists from The Independent newspaper.
August 16, 1999 His Excellency Pedro Hendrik Vaal Neto Minister of Social Communications Luanda, Angola Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an independent organization of journalists dedicated to the defense of press freedom worldwide, is once again writing to protest your government’s brutal repression of the independent Angolan press. On August 9, 1999,…
Former military junta soldiers released a journalist and one other hostage on the night of Thursday, August 6. The two freed hostages were among 40 people kidnapped near the capital, Freetown, on Wednesday. The journalist, local Reuters reporter Christo Johnson, later told the BBC that the soldiers said they would free the remaining hostages once…
August 4, 1999 President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah State House Freetown, Sierra Leone BY FAX: (232-22) 225615 Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a non-partisan organization dedicated to the defense of press freedom worldwide, welcomes the release from jail, on the weekend of July 31, of four journalists who were imprisoned on charges of…
On August 2, 1999, Gambian security officials released three journalists of The Independentnewspaper from detention at National Intelligence Agency (NIA) headquarters in Banul. Baba Galleh Jallow, Yorrow Jallow, and Lamin Daffeh were told to report at NIA headquarters again on August 3 with all the necessary documents pertaining to the registration of the newspaper. The…
July 29, 1999 His Excellency Laurent-Désiré Kabila President of the Democratic Republic of Congo Ngaliema, Kinshasa Democratic Republic of Congo Your Wxcellency, CPJ is greatly alarmed by the continued imprisonment of journalists Mbakulu Pambu Diambu and Godefroid Kiangwe Buleya. With the Lusaka peace accord now in place, we demand the immediate and unconditional release of…