Freelance journalist in hiding over reports on South Sudan
Nairobi, August 6, 2014–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities in South Sudan to ensure the safety of a freelance journalist who has been in hiding since late July. Abraham Agoth told CPJ that he fled his home in the northern state of Bahr el Ghazal on July 28, fearing arrest.
News from the Committee to Protect Journalists, July 2014
CPJ conducts fact-finding mission in Ukraine Muzaffar Suleymanov, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia Research Associate, traveled to Kiev on July 6 on a week-long fact-finding mission and spoke to more than a dozen local and international journalists about press freedom conditions in the country. Suleymanov also met with journalists who had covered or were covering…
First US-Africa summit short on press freedom, other human rights
Top African and U.S. leaders are meeting next week in Washington in a first-of-its-kind summit focused on African development. But critics argue the summit is flawed in design, overlooking human rights such as freedom of expression and barring civil society actors from bilateral discussions.
No press freedom without Internet freedom
Four years ago, when CPJ launched its Internet Advocacy program, we were met with lots of encouragement, but also some skepticism. “Why do you need a program to defend the Internet?” one supporter asked. “You don’t have a special program to defend television, or radio, or newspapers.” But the Internet is different. Increasingly, when it…
Ethiopian photojournalist Aziza Mohamed held without charge
Nairobi, July 31, 2014–CPJ is alarmed by the detention of Addis Guday (“Addis Affairs”) photojournalist Aziza Mohamed, who has been in custody for two weeks without charge. Police arrested Aziza on July 18 while she was covering Muslim protests near Anwar Mosque in the capital Addis Ababa, local journalists told CPJ. She is being held…
Police in Burkina Faso seize journalist’s camera, deletes images
A police officer on July 24, 2014, seized the camera of Hippolyte Sama, a photojournalist with the independent newsmagazine Fasozine, while he was photographing relatives of victims of an Air Algeria plane that crashed in northern Mali, according to news reports.
CPJ condemns Swaziland editor’s prison sentence
Cape Town, July 25, 2014–CPJ is appalled by the two-year prison sentence, without the option of a fine, imposed today on editor of The Nation Bheki Makhubu and human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko by the Swaziland High Court in Mbabane. The pair was convicted on contempt of court charges on July 17, in connection with…
CPJ calls on Ethiopian government to release imprisoned journalists
CPJ is among a group of more than 40 regional and international press freedom and civil society organizations that have signed a joint letter to Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn expressing concern over the recent imprisonment of Ethiopian journalists under the country’s far-reaching 2009 anti-terrorism law.