Africa
2017
Journalists Not Terrorists: In Cameroon, anti-terror legislation is used to silence critics and suppress dissent
In 2014, Cameroon enacted a broad anti-terror law as part of its effort to counter the extremist group Boko Haram, but authorities are using it to arrest and threaten local journalists who report on the militants or unrest in the country’s English-speaking regions. A presidential decree in August 2017 ended legal proceedings against at least…
Calls for Republic of the Congo president to free jailed Talassa editor
The Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Sans Frontières write to Republic of Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso, about Ghys Fortuné Dombé Bemba, editor of the privately owned newspaper Talassa, who has been jailed without charge since January.
Somali journalist dies after suicide bomber targets café
Nairobi, September 14–Somali broadcast journalist Abdullahi Osman Moalim died yesterday from injuries sustained on September 10 when a suicide bomber attacked a café in Beldweyne where members of the press gather, Somalia’s Minister of Information, Abdirahman Omar Osman, and the journalist’s colleagues, told CPJ.
DRC journalist faces defamation charge over report on minister
New York City, September 1, 2017–Authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo should drop all charges against Jeef Mwingamb, editor-in-chief of the weekly Le Fédéral, and release him immediately, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
Cameroon releases three journalists jailed under anti-terror law
New York, September 1, 2017–The office of President Paul Biya announced August 30 that Cameroon is ending criminal proceedings against those detained during unrest in the country’s two English-speaking regions. Atia Tilarious Azohnwi, political editor of The Sun, Tim Finnian, editor of Life Time magazine, and Hans Achomba, a freelance documentary filmmaker, are among those…
Cameroon arrests journalists on terror charges
Police arrested Atia Tilarious Azohnwi, the political editor of The Sun, and Amos Fofung, a bureau chief at The Guardian Post, on February 9, 2017, in Buea, the capital of Cameroon’s English-speaking Southwest region, according to media reports. Their arrest came a few hours after police detained a third Cameroonian, Mofor Ndong, for allegedly planning…
Congolese authorities question radio journalist over broadcast on new tax
National intelligence services and police issued summonses to Israel Ntumba, a reporter for the Congolese broadcaster, Kasai Horizontal Radio et Television (KHRT), over an August 5, 2017 broadcast on a new motorcycle tax in Kananga, a city in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the station’s program director, Honi Tshibola and Ntumba, told CPJ.