Kenya / Africa

Click here to read more about press freedom conditions in KENYA New York, June 13, 2000 — The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the June 12 student mob attack on the downtown Nairobi offices of the state-owned daily Nation. The students, from the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), stormed the newspaper…

Dear Mr. Wako: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is shocked by the eighteen-month jail sentence handed down to Johann Wandetto, a reporter for the daily The People newspaper, based in Kitale, Rift Valley Province. Wandetto was charged in the magistrate’s court on February 15 with publishing an “alarmist report” in the March 6, 1999, edition of The People. The article, titled “Militia men rob eight crack unit officers: Shock as Moi’s men surrender meekly,” claimed that elite presidential guards had been ambushed by militiamen in the remote West Pokot area of the country. Witnesses from the presidential guard denied this.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is gravely concerned about proposed amendments to the Books and Newspapers Act that would dramatically increase the mandatory publication-licensing bond. Under the amended Act, new publications would be required to post a bond of 1 million shillings (US$13,459) as security for any monetary penalty that might arise from criminal proceedings against them. This represents a hundred-fold increase over the current bond of ten thousand shillings (US$134.59).

A Special Report

Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) deeply regrets the six-month jail sentence handed down to Tony Gachoka, publisher of The Post on Sundaymagazine, for contempt of court, and the exorbitant fine imposed on his publishing firm. Not only is the penalty disproportionate to the alleged offense, but the fairness of Gachoka’s trial is also in question.

NEW YORK –The leaders of China, Nigeria, and Turkey are among 10 world figures identified by the U.S. based Committee to Protect Journalists as “Enemies of the Press.” All are responsible for brutal campaigns against journalists and press freedom, as documented by CPJ in its ongoing monitoring of press freedom violations worldwide. The Enemies of…

Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Jan. 13–When this country opened the way for an independent press at the turn of the decade, the blossoming of newspapers of nearly every political persuasion was widely hailed as a critical stepping stone toward true multiparty democracy. But here, as elsewhere in Africa, rather than marking a clean break with an…

Africa For the third consecutive year, Ethiopia held more journalists in jail–31 at year’s end–than any other country in Africa. Most were detained without charges.

Abu Abdul Rahman Amin, leader of the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria His insurgent faction has claimed responsibility for many of the 58 assassinations of journalists in Algeria over the past three years. Rahman Amin has threatened all secular journalists with death. “Those who fight with the pen,” he proclaimed, “shall die by the sword.”…