New York, October 25, 2006—Security agents for Somalia’s transitional federal government arrested three radio journalists on Tuesday near the southern city of Baidoa, where the government is based. Transitional government security services were still holding Fahad Mohammed Abukar of Baidoa-based Warsan Radio, Mohammed Adawe Adam of Mogadishu-based Radio Shabelle, and Muktar Mohammed Atosh of Mogadishu-based…
New York, October 18, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls for the release of a Gabonese journalist who was imprisoned today on defamation charges even as his appeal was still pending. The jailing comes three years after the sentence was first imposed—which a defense lawyer said contravenes Gabonese law—and follows a politically charged debate over…
UPDATE October 13, 2006 Original Case: September 29, 2006 Les Echos du Nord CENSORED The state-controlled National Council on Communications’ (CNC) three-month ban on private weekly Les Echos du Nord over an article critical of government policy expired after the CNC reduced the ban by two months, according to local journalists.
New York, October 12, 2006—Gambian authorities released a journalist on Monday after detaining him for nearly five months without charge, according to news reports and local sources. The journalist was arrested in a crackdown on a U.S.-hosted opposition Web site. Malick Mboob, a former copy editor for the pro-government Daily Observer, had been detained at…
New York, October 12, 2006—An Abuja court on Tuesday dropped sedition charges against Mike Gbenga Aruleba, a presenter at African Independent Television (AIT), but retained similar charges against Rotimi Durojaiye of the Daily Independent newspaper in connection with a story questioning the age and cost of the presidential jet, according to news reports and local…
New York, October 2, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the ongoing campaign of intimidation by the authorities in Burundi against radio stations that have cast doubt on a government claim to have uncovered a coup plot. The State Prosecutor today questioned three journalists from three independent stations about their sources for a…
New York, October 2, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a three-month ban by authorities in Gabon on the newspaper Les Echos du Nord for an article which criticized the handling of a territorial dispute with neighboring Equatorial Guinea. The National Council on Communications (CNC), an official regulatory body, imposed the ban on September 29,…