AUGUST 9, 2005 Updated: September 7, 2005 Nku’u Le Messager CENSORED Gabon’s media regulatory council suspended the independent bimonthly newspaper Nku’u Le Messager over an editorial it said insulted the council, according to local news reports and the publication director. In a statement, the council said the suspension would be lifted only if the newspaper…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is troubled by your government’s recent expulsion of Rodrick Mukumbira, a Zimbabwean national who had been working as a journalist in Botswana since 2002. Local press freedom groups have expressed concern that the expulsion may be linked to his work.
New York, August 9, 2005—A radio reporter jailed for five days in Jowhar was released without charge on Sunday, but was expelled from the town and told not to come back, according to the journalist and local sources. Abdullahi Kulmiye Adow, a reporter for the Mogadishu-based independent radio station HornAfrik, had been detained since August…
AUGUST 8, 2005 Updated: October 17, 2005 Michaël Didama, Le Temps IMPRISONED, LEGAL ACTION Michaël Didama, director of the private weekly Le Temps, was convicted on charges of defamation and incitement to hatred and sentenced to six months in jail in connection with articles describing rebel groups in eastern Chad, according to local sources.
New York, August 8, 2005—Michaël Didama, director of the private weekly Le Temps, was convicted on charges of defamation and incitement to hatred today and sentenced to six months in jail in connection with articles describing rebel groups in eastern Chad, according to local sources. The charges stemmed from May articles in Le Temps, one…
New York, August 8, 2005—Ethiopia’s Supreme Court has sentenced a newspaper editor to one month in jail on a contempt charge after the editor refused to identify an unnamed source who criticized an earlier court ruling. The editor of a second paper was fined in a related case. Tamrat Serbesa, editor-in-chief of the private Amharic-language…
New York, August 3, 2005—A journalist for the Mogadishu-based independent radio station HornAfrik was arrested in Jowhar last night following a critical report about transitional federal authorities, according to the Somali Journalists Network (SOJON) and other local sources. Abdullahi Kulmiye Adow was still in police detention late today, they said. It was not clear whether…
AUGUST 2, 2005 Posted: August 17, 2005 Abdullahi Kulmiye Adow, HornAfrik IMPRISONED, HARASSED Adow, a reporter for the Mogadishu-based independent radio station HornAfrik, was detained on August 2 by militia loyal to local faction leader Mohamed Dhere. Dhere is a supporter of Somalia’s Transitional Federal President Abdullahi Yusuf, who recently established a temporary headquarters in…
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled by the July 28 death of independent newspaper editor Harry Yansaneh. An autopsy attributed Yansaneh’s death to kidney failure. Yansaneh, acting editor of the daily For Di People, was assaulted on May 10 by a group of attackers. Prior to his death, Yansaneh alleged that Member of Parliament Fatmata Hassan had ordered the attack, according to local sources and press freedom organizations. Hassan, a member of your Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), was seeking at the time to evict For Di People and five other independent newspapers from the office space they had rented from her family for many years. The other newspapers were The Independent Observer, The Pool, The African Champion, The Pioneer and The Progress.