Africa

2018

  
Tanzanian immigration authorities detained CPJ Sub-Saharan Africa Representative Muthoki Mumo, left, and Africa Program Coordinator Angela Quintal in Dar es Salaam on November 7. (CPJ)

CPJ calls on Tanzania authorities to release staff Angela Quintal and Muthoki Mumo

New York, November 7, 2018–Authorities in Tanzania should immediately release Angela Quintal, Africa program coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists, and Muthoki Mumo, CPJ’s sub-Saharan Africa representative, and return their passports, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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Cameroon authorities summon journalist Mimi Mefo

New York, November 2, 2018–Authorities in Cameroon should halt their intimidation of journalist Mimi Mefo and ensure that she can work safely without fear of reprisal, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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A Somali boy, pictured in August 2018, watches as soldiers for the African Union Mission leave the Mogadishu stadium they used for years as a base. Gunmen in October shot dead a radio journalist in a town about 17km from the capital. (AFP/Mohamed Abdiwahab)

Radio journalist gunned down in Somalia

Nairobi, Kenya, October 31, 2018–Authorities in Somalia should urgently investigate the killing of radio journalist Abdullahi Mire Hashi, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. At least two unidentified gunmen shot Abdullahi in the town of Elasha Biyaha, about 17 km from the Somali capital, Mogadishu, on October 27, according to media reports and two…

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A taxi driver points towards an electoral poster for Cameroonian President Paul Biya as the road crosses into the majority English-speaking South West region of Cameroon, in Buea, on October 3, 2018. A journalist was detained October 23 after publishing articles criticizing the government's handling of grievances of Anglophone Cameroonians. (AFP/Marco Longari)

Cameroon detains journalist for a week, fails to disclose charge

Abidjan, Ivory Coast, October 30, 2018–Authorities in Cameroon should immediately release or disclose charges against Michel Biem Tong, editor of the privately owned Hurinews website, who was detained on October 23 after being summoned to the State Secretariat for Defense in the capital, Yaoundé, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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A tribute to victims of an April 2018 suicide attack in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, that killed at least nine journalists. (AP/Rahmat Gul)

Getting Away with Murder

CPJ’s 2018 Global Impunity Index spotlights countries where journalists are slain and their killers go free By Elisabeth Witchel, CPJ Impunity Campaign Consultant Impunity is entrenched in 14 nations, according to CPJ’s 2018 Global Impunity Index, which ranks states with the worst records of prosecuting the killers of journalists.

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A copy of a letter that The Times of Swaziland said was presented to its journalists while they were in the Qatar Embassy. (Times of Swaziland)

Qatar embassy in Swaziland briefly detains two journalists

Security staff detained two Times of Swaziland journalists for more than an hour at the Qatar Embassy in Swaziland’s capital, Mbabane, on October 5, 2018, according to a statement by the local chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA). The journalists were detained after a senior diplomat tried to make them sign a…

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DRC authorities close two opposition radio stations

Goma, October 17, 2018–Authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo should immediately reopen two opposition-owned radio stations–Radio Liberté Lisala and Radio Mwana Mboka (Rammbo)–and halt the intimidation of journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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A man stands by a street stall as another one walks past him in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, on December 21, 2016. A newspaper editor was detained for criminal defamation in Kinshasa on October 10, 2018. (AFP/Eduardo Soteras)

DRC newspaper editor detained for criminal defamation

Goma, October 12, 2018–Authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo should immediately release Sylvanie Kiaku, editor of the privately owned weekly newspaper La Percée, who was arrested on October 10 in the capital, Kinshasa, and drop charges of criminal defamation against her, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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Mexican journalist Carmen Aristegui holds her mobile phone during a press conference in Mexico City in 2017 about governments using spyware to target journalist. (AFP/Alfredo Estrella)

CPJ Safety Advisory: Pegasus spyware used to target journalists, civil society

[EDITOR’S NOTE: See CPJ’s updated safety advisory here https://cpj.org/2019/11/cpj-safety-advisory-journalist-targets-of-pegasus-.php.] In a report published on September 18, Citizen Lab said it had detected Pegasus, a spyware created for mobile devices, in over 45 countries. Pegasus, which transforms a cellphone into a mobile surveillance station, could have been deployed against a range of journalists and civil society…

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A fisherman carries his catch near a fishing port in Mogadishu on September 14. Authorities in the Somali state of Galmudug have detained a journalist on false news allegations. (Reuters/Feisal Omar)

Somali authorities detain journalist accused of spreading ‘false news’

Nairobi, September 26, 2018–Authorities in the Somali state of Galmudug should immediately release broadcast journalist Mohamed Abdiwali Tohow without charge, the Committee to Protect Journalist said today. Intelligence personnel detained the journalist on September 22 over a report broadcast the previous day for the Mogadishu-based Radio Kulmiye, according to the station’s director, Burhan Dini Farah,…

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2018