Africa
2010
Editor of censored Rwandan newspaper is slain
In response to international media reports that Jean-Léonard Rugambage, the deputy editor of the suspended independent newspaper Umuvugizi, was shot dead late Thursday in the Rwandan capital of Kigali, the Committee to Protect Journalists released the following statement:
Finding success in exile from Sierra Leone
It was just days ago that my daughter had her 11th birthday. She was excited about this birthday as never before, but I understood why. A couple of days prior, she was accepted to the Frederick Douglass Academy in Manhattan for middle school starting next fall. The school is regarded as one of the best…
For Eritrean expatriate press, intimidation in exile
For the better part of the last 20 years, Tedros Menghistu has been a refugee, forced to flee his Red Sea homeland of Eritrea not once, but twice—first as a young man displaced by war in the early 1990s, and then as a professional journalist escaping political censorship and military conscription a decade later. Menghistu is also…
Journalists in Exile 2010
An exodus from Iran, East Africa At least 85 journalists fled their home countries in the past year in the face of attacks, threats, and possible imprisonment. High exile rates are seen in Iran and in the East African nations of Somalia and Ethiopia. A CPJ Special Report by María Salazar-Ferro
Video Report: From Captivity to Exile
In “From Captivity to Exile,” Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout talks about the plight of Somali cameraman Mohamed Abdifatah Elmi. The two were abducted along with three others in 2008. Freed after many months, Elmi remains at risk and is now in exile. (3:59) Read our accompanying special report, “Journalists in Exile 2010.” Please visit our…
UNESCO’s dictator prize put on hold
Irina Bokova, UNESCO’s director-general, delivered a firm message on Tuesday to representatives from UNESCO’s 58-member executive board assembled at the organization’s Paris headquarters: Bestowing the Obiang International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences, named for and financed by one of the most repressive leaders in Africa, would do grave damage to the organization.
In Liberia, needy media strained to cover election campaign
Last week in steamy, rain-soaked Monrovia, anticipation for the World Cup aside, I could already sense the buzz building around presidential elections scheduled for October of 2011. In the coming contest—only the second presidential election since the end of the civil war—Liberians will decide whether to reelect Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first female head of state, for a second term. Just as…
Rwanda news Web site blocked after paper suspended
New York, June 11, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Rwandan authorities today to provide information as to why the Web site of newspaper Umuvugizi is inaccessible in the run-up to August presidential elections. The state-run Rwanda News Agency reported on June 3 that the Web site of Umuvugizi, a leading private paper known for its critical coverage of the government, could…
Cano laureates say no to UNESCO Obiang prize
Each year, UNESCO honors a courageous international journalist with the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize, named in honor of the Colombian editor murdered in 1986 by the Medellín Cartel. The prize is chosen by an independent jury and over the years I’ve attended several moving ceremonies in which some of the most daring journalists…