New York, January 17, 2008—Police in the Chadian capital, N’djamena, forced a radio station launched by local human rights activists off the air on Wednesday and detained its director on allegations of defamation over the broadcast of a press release by a consumer advocacy group, according to local journalists and news reports. The studios of…
JANUARY 15, 2008 Posted January 16, 2008 Ayanle Hussein Abdi, BBC Freelance HARASSED Local police arrested BBC freelance reporter Ayanle Hussein Abdi on Tuesday in Beledweyne, the capital of the central Somali region of Hiran. The governor of Hiran Province, Yusuf Dabageed, ordered the arrest of Abdi with no official charges but accused the reporter…
New York, January 15, 2008—A court in the Central African Republic’s capital, Bangui, today sent the director of a private newspaper to prison to await trial on criminal charges in connection with an editorial about a political scandal. Faustin Bambou of the biweekly Les Collines de l’Oubangui was transferred to Bangui’s main Ngaraba prison after…
November 29, 2007 Alexandre Neto, Radio Despertar Antonio Cascais, Deutche Welle Radio HARASSED Two journalists were detained and beaten by police in Angola’s capital city, Luanda, while reporting on forced evictions of residents from the Kilamba Kiaxi area of Luanda. Neto, the director of Radio Despertar, and Deutche Welle reporter Antonio Cascais were held and…
New York, January 14, 2008—National security agents for the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia arrested two journalists for the independent, Mogadishu-based Somaliweyn Radio on Sunday. According to Somaliweyn Radio sources, security agents seized reporter Bashir Mohammed Abdulkadir at the station and took him to National Security Agency headquarters for questioning. Local journalists said the arrests…
JANUARY 10, 2008 Posted January 18, 2008 Radio LyambaiCENSORED The Ministry of Information has extended a ban on call-in programs at Radio Lyambai in the western province of Mongu. On November 30, 2007, the ministry’s director of press and planning, Juliana Mwila, sent a letter to the station banning its call-in programs and calling them…
JANUARY 9, 2008 Posted February 21, 2008 Maurice Kayombo, Les Grands EnjeuxIMPRISONED Police in the capital Kinshasa picked up Kayombo, a reporter for the private monthly Les Grands Enjeux, after he went to the office of Mining Ministry Permanent Secretary Christophe Kaninio to seek comments about allegations of corruption for a story that had not…
CPJ mourns the loss of Niger radio director New York, January 9, 2008—CPJ mourns the untimely death of the director of Niger’s first independent radio station, Radio R & M (Radio and Music), based in the capital, Niamey, after his car drove over a landmine yesterday on the city’s outskirts. Abdou Mahamane, commonly known as…
New York, January 8, 2008—Police in Dar-es-Salaam said Monday that they had two suspects in custody after armed men stormed the newsroom of a popular vernacular newspaper and seriously injured two top journalists, according to local reporters and news accounts. Managing Editor Saed Kubenea of the Kiswahili-language Mwana Halisi and veteran journalist Ndimara Tegambwage, a…
New York, January 7, 2008—Police arrested freelance journalist Idle Moallim on Sunday in the northeastern city of Bossasso in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, local journalists told CPJ. Police arrested Moallim for “misreporting” a story on human trafficking in Bossasso and are holding him at Bossasso central prison, according to local journalists. Moallim is a…