2009

Mr. President: We are alarmed by the government’s decision to indefinitely ban FM broadcasts of Radio France Internationale (RFI) in the eastern cities of Bunia and Bukavu. We call on you to use your influence to reverse these rulings, which we believe deprive residents of eastern Congo of access to diverse sources of information about the conflict in their region.

New York, June 18, 2009–A magistrate in the Gambian capital, Banjul, today charged seven journalists with sedition for criticizing President Yahya Jammeh’s televised comments about the unsolved 2004 murder of editor Deyda Hydara, their defense lawyer said. Gambian security forces arrested an eighth journalist this morning, although no charges were immediately brought, according to the…

New York, June 18, 2009–A journalist in Equatorial Guinea, facing a criminal libel charge over a flawed story, was imprisoned on Wednesday, according to local journalists. 

Sri Lankan journalists flee under severe pressure in the past year. Iraq and Somalia, two deadly countries for the press, also rank high in numbers of journalists forced into exile. Hundreds of journalists have been driven into exile this decade. By Karen Phillips

New York, June 16, 2009–The Committee to Protect Journalists called today for Gambia’s national security agency to release seven journalists it arrested on Monday. The detainees include leaders of the country’s press union and editors of newspapers that published a union press release criticizing President Yahya Jammeh’s recent comments about the unsolved 2004 murder of…

After receiving reports today of the arrest of seven senior Gambian journalists and press union leaders who criticized President Yahya Jammeh for remarks that bluntly refuted government involvement in the unsolved 2004 murder of an editor, we issued the following statement…

New York, June 11, 2009–The Committee to Protect Journalists urges the Canadian and Australian governments to work for the immediate release of two freelance journalists who have been held captive in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, since August.