In Ethiopia, journalist detained since 2013 handed jail sentence
New York, March 11, 2016–Solomon Kebede, the managing editor of the now-defunct Ethiopian paper Ye Muslimoch Guday (Muslim Affairs), was sentenced to prison Thursday, more than three years after being jailed on anti-terrorism charges. CPJ was not immediately able to reconcile conflicting reports on the exact length of the prison sentence.
Nigerian police detain publisher
Abuja, Nigeria, March 10, 2016 – Nigerian authorities should immediately release magazine publisher Yomi Olomofe on bail, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Police detained Olomofe early this evening in Lagos, after men he had accused of severely beating him in June 2015 alleged the publisher had assaulted and attempted to extort money from…
Nigerian security forces assault journalists
Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps officers on February 20, 2016, detained three television journalists in Owerri, the capital of the southeastern Imo State, for refusing to hand over their phones to officials of the Federal Road Safety Commission who were allegedly demanding a bribe from a motorist, according to news reports and two of…
Gambia should free ailing, arbitrarily detained journalist
CPJ today joined with Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to call on Gambia to free Alagie Abdoulie Ceesay, managing director of the independent radio station Teranga FM, who has been charged with sedition and “publication of false news.” Ceesay has been hospitalized twice since the beginning of 2016. Read the full statement here.
South Sudanese journalist found beaten
Nairobi, March 8, 2016 – South Sudanese authorities should immediately launch an independent, thorough investigation into the abduction and beating of journalist Joseph Afandi and punish those responsible, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Colleagues found Afandi dumped near a graveyard in Juba today, beaten and bearing marks of torture, according to press accounts.
Ethiopian police detain journalists, translator for 24 hours
Ethiopian federal police detained Bloomberg correspondent William Davison, freelance journalist Jacey Fortin, and a translator they had hired near the eastern town of Awash at around 12:40 p.m. on March 3, according to the Foreign Correspondents Association of East Africa.
Court sentences man in murders of five Somali journalists
New York, March 4, 2016 — A military court in Mogadishu on Thursday found Hassan Hanafi, a former journalist, guilty of direct or indirect involvement in the killing five journalists on behalf of the armed militant group Al-Shabaab, according to news reports. The court sentenced him to death by execution, which in Somalia is usually…
After disputed Uganda election, journalists fear prolonged crackdown
Twenty nine-year-old photographer Abubaker Lubowa was excited when he was assigned to cover the campaign of opposition leader Kizza Besigye. He told CPJ he did not anticipate that the assignment would mean he would make the news almost as often as he covered it.
CPJ Newsletter: March edition
Landmark conviction in 2000 attack on Colombian journalist A Colombian court on February 26 convicted a former paramilitary fighter in the kidnapping and torture of Colombian journalist Jineth Bedoya and sentenced him to 11 years in prison. The fighter, Alejandro Cárdenas Orozco, was also ordered to pay a fine of around US$17,500.
Nigerian journalist says businessman threatened her over investigative report
Abuja, Nigeria, February 25, 2016–Nigerian authorities should investigate claims that a businessman threatened freelance journalist Augustina Armstrong-Ogbonna over her investigation into his company, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.