New York, September 16, 2003—This morning, detectives, security agents, armed paramilitary members, and riot police raided the offices of the Daily News, Zimbabwe’s only independent daily, according to The Associated Press (AP). Officials also seized computers and other equipment belonging to the newspaper. The raid came after the newspaper was closed on September 12. On…
New York, September 12, 2003—Zimbabwean authorities have shuttered the offices of the Harare-based Daily News, the country’s only independent daily. A Daily News staffer who answered the phone at the newspaper’s offices this evening said that “our operations are being ceased.” According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), a Daily News reporter said today that “about 20…
Your Excellency: As the start of your government’s “National Dialogue,” which opens today and runs through September 20 and is aimed at reconciling the Central African Republic after years of war, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) writes to respectfully remind you of the many challenges facing Central African media, in the hopes that they may be addressed at this forum. This is especially important in light of Your Excellency’s plans, according to local and international press, to have a new constitution drafted and approved by 2005.
New York, September 4, 2003—Guy Kasongo Kilembwe, a journalist who was arrested on August 29, was released today from the Penitentiary and Reeducation Center in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Kilembwe, editor-in-chief of the satirical newspaper Pot-Pourri, told CPJ that his release was granted after he paid US$100 and promised to…
New York, September 3, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned by the continued detention of Guy Kasongo Kilembwe, editor-in-chief of the satirical newspaper Pot-Pourri based in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. National Police officers arrested Kilembwe on August 29. Local sources told CPJ that they believe Kilembwe was…
New York, August 28, 2003—Policemen in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, assaulted Désiré-Israél Kazadi, a reporter working for the daily newspaper Le Phare (The Lighthouse), yesterday during a confrontation with supporters of the opposition Union for Democracy and Social Progress (known by its French acronym UDPS). According to the journalist and…
New York, August 27, 2003— The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns recent attempts by the House of Assembly in Nigeria’s Akwa Ibom state to expel journalist Haruna Acheneje from the state, which is located on the country’s southern coast. Acheneje is a correspondent based in Uyo, Akwa Ibom’s capital, for the national daily The…
New York, August 22, 2003—Earlier this month, Gambian police assaulted Buya Jammeh, a reporter for the English-language biweekly The Independent, near the newspaper’s offices in the capital, Banjul. According to sources familiar with the incident, on August 9, two police officers stationed a short distance from the newspaper stopped Jammeh on his way to a…
New York, August 21, 2003—Earlier this month, a group of young men brutally assaulted Flata Kavinga, a reporter for Zimbabwe’s English-language weekly The Midlands Observer. According to sources familiar with the incident, on August 8, six men—at least two of whom were members of Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU-PF—approached the reporter outside a nightclub in Kwekwe, a…