Africa

On July 2, 2013, nine judges on Ghana’s Supreme Court convicted Ken Kuranchie, editor-in-chief of the Daily Searchlight, of criminal contempt in connection with his critical articles. The journalist was sentenced to 10 days in jail, according to news reports.

A radio station in the eastern Guinean city of Kankan was raided and attacked twice in three days in mid-August, according to news reports. At least three journalists reported being briefly detained.

Juda Allahondoum, editor of the private weekly La Une based in the capital, N’Djamena, was convicted of criminal defamation on July 30, 2013, and sentenced to a suspended prison term of six months, Allahondoum and his lawyer told CPJ.

Three Chadian journalists jailed for several months in the capital, N’Djamena, while facing prosecution on defamation and anti-state charges, were handed suspended jail terms and then released, according to news reports and local journalists.

Bodyguards for Economic, Planning and Development Minister Ralph Jooma assaulted Raphael Mlozoa, journalist for the private Zodiak Broadcasting Station, on August 25, 2013, in the southern town of Mangochi, according to news reports. The minister accused Mlozoa of false reporting and ordered his security staff to confront Mlozoa, the reports said.

Dear President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: We call on you to decriminalize defamation; adopt monetary damages for libel commensurate with the harm done and within limits Liberians can afford; and halt the incarceration of defendants unable to pay, which is highly unusual in civil cases. We urge you to facilitate the release of jailed journalist Rodney Sieh and the reopening of his newspaper, FrontPageAfrica.

New York, August 28, 2014–The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by today’s hospitalization of leading Liberian independent journalist Rodney Sieh, who has been on hunger strike since his imprisonment on August 21.