Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is troubled by your government’s recent efforts to influence journalists’ coverage of Uganda. Government officials have recently said that the accreditation of foreign journalists–previously an apolitical process–is tied to an official evaluation of the journalists’ work. This attempt to deter foreign reporters from filing critical reports is particularly troubling in the run-up to the February presidential election, an event deserving of full international attention.
New York, January 24, 2006—Six trustees of the independent news production company Voice of the People were charged today with broadcasting without a license, which carries a potential two-year prison penalty. Defense lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa said her clients appeared in court this morning in the capital, Harare, after learning that police were seeking their arrest.…
New York, January 23, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is outraged at the Ethiopian government’s weekend expulsion of The Associated Press correspondent in the country. Anthony Mitchell, who reported news on Friday of renewed clashes between police and protesters in the capital, Addis Ababa, left on Sunday after government officials gave him 24 hours to…
New York, January 20, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomed a conviction today by a Mozambican court in the murder of Carlos Cardoso but called on authorities to pursue those behind the killing of Mozambique’s leading investigative reporter. A court in the capital, Maputo, convicted Anibal dos Santos Jr. for the second time of recruiting…
New York, January 20, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned the detention of Zimbabwean journalist Sydney Saize who has been held since Wednesday in the eastern town of Mutare. Police accused Saize of working without accreditation and filing a “false” story for the U.S.-funded radio Voice of America, according to the Media Institute for…
During the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, media outlets linked to the Hutu-backed government helped lay the groundwork for the slaughter of Tutsis by routinely vilifying them. One radio station, Radio Television Libre de Mille Collines (RTLM), went so far as to identify targets for the Hutu militias that carried out most of the killing. In December 2003, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda convicted three Rwandan media executives — two from RTLM and one from a newspaper called Kangura — for their role in the genocide.
January 19, 2006 Original alert: December 23, 2005 Klem Ofuokwu, Rhythm 93.7 FM Cleopatra Taiwo, Rhythm 93.7 FM IMPRISONED, LEGAL ACTION On January 3, two radio journalists were released from prison after paying bail in the southern city of Port Harcourt. Ofuokwu and Taiwo, both of whom work for the private radio station Rhythm 93.7…
New York, January 18, 2006—Hundreds of members of the radical pro-government Young Patriots militia seized control of the state television and radio broadcaster Radiodiffusion Télévision Ivoirienne (RTI) today, broadcasting calls for protests against the French and U.N. presence in the country, according to local sources. They were also said to ransack a community radio station…
New York, January 18, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed concern today that Voice of the People (VOP), an independent Zimbabwean news production company, remains inactive after police confiscated its equipment and files in a December raid. Authorities have continued to hold VOP material for more than a month. VOP Director John Masuku appeared in…