2008

Alexis Sinduhije founded Radio Publique Africaine (RPA) in 2001 to bridge Burundi’s ethnic divide. Divisions between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups have sparked widespread and lingering violence throughout the country. 

New York, November 7, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes today’s release of a Belgian journalist, his interpreter, and his driver, who were kidnapped on Tuesday while reporting on the war in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. CPJ remains concerned about the safety of journalists in the rebel-held town of Kiwanja, where the only radio station…

We issued the following statement today after the release of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung journalist Thomas Scheen, interpreter Charles Ntiricya and driver Roger Bangue, who were kidnapped by a pro-government militia last Tuesday in Kiwanja, in the war-torn east of the Democratic Republic of Congo…

The Web site EurasiaNet has an article today looking at concerns surrounding the shutdown of foreign radio broadcasts in Azerbaijan. We released an alert on this troubling development on November 3, expressing concern at plans by President Ilham Aliyev’s administration to discontinue the broadcasts of the BBC, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the Voice of America.

New York, November 4, 2008–CPJ calls on Ethiopian authorities to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation into Friday’s beating of newspaper editor Amare Aregawi.

New York, November 3, 2008–An Ethiopian Federal High Court judge convicted an editor today on criminal charges of “inciting the public through false rumors” over a reporting mistake, local journalists told CPJ.

New York, October 31, 2008–Nigeria’s national security agency today confirmed it is holding a U.S.-based Nigerian blogger in the capital, Abuja. This is the second online journalist held for questioning in the past two weeks.

New York, October 23, 2008–An Ethiopian editor is facing criminal charges today because she accidentally misidentified a judge in a high-profile trial, according to local journalists. Two other journalists have been in police custody since Monday because of the same story.

The writer spent months trying to find a colleague secretly jailed in the Gambia. Then he took the witness stand.

New York, October 17, 2008–The director and a staff member of the Society for Democratic Initiatives (SDI), a Sierra Leone media advocacy group, say they are receiving death threats after publishing a report on press conditions late last month.