Africa

2019

  
Brass work hangs at the entrance to Igun Street in the Edo state capital of Benin City, in June 2018. A journalist for Rave Television was attacked while covering a protest in the Nigerian city in November 2019. (Reuters/Akintunde Akinleye)

Assailants attack Rave Television journalist, break camera during Nigeria protest

On November 9, 2019, a group of people attacked Jimoh Ogirima, a journalist with the privately owned broadcaster Rave Television, in Nigeria’s southern Edo State, and damaged his camera while he filmed a protest, according to the news website Newspad, the Ghana-based press freedom organization Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), and Ogirima, who spoke…

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Patrice Talon, the president of Benin, during a conference co-organized by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on sustainable development and debt in Diamniadio, Senegal, on December 2, 2019. Authorities in Benin on December 20 arrested journalist Ignace Sossou on a defamation complaint filed by a government minister. (AFP/Seyllou)

Benin authorities arrest journalist Ignace Sossou, question him about Facebook posts

Vancouver, Canada, December 23, 2019 — Authorities in Benin should immediately release and halt efforts to intimidate journalist Ignace Sossou and drop any charges against him, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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A police officer is seen in Mogadishu, Somalia, on March 23, 2019. Somali authorities recently shut down local broadcaster City FM and briefly detained its staffers. (Reuters/Feisal Omar)

Somali authorities shut down radio station City FM, seek to question owner

Nairobi, December 23, 2019 — Somali authorities should immediately allow local broadcaster City FM to reopen and let its staffers work freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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A June 5, 2019, photo shows a "media interview area" for reporters set up near the Idkah mosque on the morning of Eid al-Fitr, when Muslims around the world celebrate the end of Ramadan, in Kashgar, in China's northwestern Xinjiang region. China was the world’s leading jailer of journalists in 2019, with at least 48 in prison. (AFP/Greg Baker)

China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt are world’s worst jailers of journalists

For the fourth consecutive year, at least 250 journalists are imprisoned globally as authoritarians like Xi Jinping, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Mohammed bin Salman, and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi show no signs of letting up on the critical media. A CPJ special report by Elana Beiser

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Fighting breaks out as security personnel attempt to re-arrest Nigerian activist and journalist Omoyele Sowore at the Federal High Court in Abuja, Nigeria, on December 6, 2019. Sowore and other activist-journalists have been jailed in Nigeria and Ethiopia amid a crackdown on free expression. (Reuters/Afolabi Sotunde)

Nigeria and Ethiopia jail activist-journalists amid crackdown on free expression

The ongoing detentions of Nigerian publisher Agba Jalingo and Ethiopian editor Fekadu Mahtemework–the only journalists behind bars for their work in their countries, according to CPJ’s latest prison census–don’t tell the whole story of their governments’ crackdowns on freedom of expression.

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Police officers detain Sahara Reporters journalist Victor Ogungbenro during a protest in Lagos, Nigeria, on August 5, 2019. Staff at the online newspaper report sustained harassment targeting them and their website. (AP/Sunday Alamba)

US-Nigerian Sahara Reporters website reports assets frozen amid surveillance, censorship

New York, December 10, 2019—Nigerian authorities should halt all efforts to intimidate journalists working with the U.S.-headquartered, Nigeria-focused Sahara Reporters news website and ensure they are permitted to continue working to report the news, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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Police officers are seen near Lagos, Nigeria, on September 3, 2019. Journalists in Kogi and Bayelsa states reported being harassed and threatened during recent elections. (Reuters/Temilade Adelaja)

Nigerian journalists attacked and threatened while covering Bayelsa and Kogi state elections

Abuja, November 19, 2019 — Nigerian authorities should investigate and hold accountable those responsible for the harassment of journalists working to cover the November 16 gubernatorial and federal assembly elections in Kogi and Bayelsa states, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today

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People take part in a parade to mark the 24th self-declared independence day for the breakaway region of Somaliland in the capital Hargeisa on May 18, 2015. On November 18, 2019, Somaliland police shut down a TV station and arrested its editor. (Reuters/Feisal Omar)

Somaliland police shut down Horn Cable TV, arrest its editor

Nairobi, November 19, 2019–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on authorities in the breakaway region of Somaliland to immediately allow the privately owned Horn Cable TV to operate freely and to unconditionally release its chief editor, Abdiqaadir Saleban Aseyr, also known as Coday.

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Demonstrators are seen outside the Department of State Services headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria, on November 12, 2019. Police fired on and attacked journalists covering that demonstration. (AFP/Kola Sulaimon)

Nigerian security forces fire on journalists, protesters

Abuja, November 15, 2019 – Nigerian authorities should investigate attacks by security forces on journalists at a recent protest in Abuja, and hold those responsible to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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CPJ
Covers of CPJ's 'Attacks on the Press' books. Starting in 1987, the annual publication acted as a database of press freedom violations. (CPJ/Mustafa Hameed)

CPJ deepens database of attacks on the press

He couldn’t have known it at the time, but when a Moroccan court sentenced editor Mohammed al-Herd on August 4, 2003, to three years in prison, he was emblematic of a new trend, one that would accelerate and continue to the present day.

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2019