Africa

Nairobi, October 29, 2012–Somali authorities should conduct a thorough investigation into the October 21 shooting of journalist Mohamed Mohamud “Turyare,” who died from his wounds on Sunday, and bring the perpetrators to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.Mohamed, 22, a reporter and website editor for the Shabelle Media Network, had been shot by unidentified…

Photojournalist Alf Kumalo, whose career chronicled the inception, injustice, and demise of apartheid in South Africa, passed away on Sunday in a Johannesburg hospital at the age of 82.

Nairobi, October 24, 2012–Unidentified gunmen killed a journalist in the Somaliland town of Las Anod on Tuesday, the first work-related fatality CPJ has documented in the semi-autonomous republic.

New York, October 23, 2012–Authorities in Equatorial Guinea indefinitely suspended a radio program on a government-controlled outlet during a broadcast on Friday that included criticism of the president of the Supreme Court, according to local journalists and news reports.

More than 40 media organizations worldwide are demanding urgent action by governments, the United Nations, and the industry to stop violence against journalists and end impunity in attacks on the press. They made their position known in a joint statement delivered today to the U.N. Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Nairobi, October 22, 2012–Somali authorities must investigate the shooting of a journalist for a national broadcaster, identify the motive, and bring the perpetrators to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Two gunmen shot Mohamed Mohamud Turyare, reporter and website editor for the Shabelle Media Network, after he left a mosque in the Hawo…

“If a journalist can’t fight for his own right, then he has no responsibility to fight for others,” Desmond Utomwen, a senior correspondent with TheNews Magazine/PM News, told me after a High Court judge on October 4 awarded him 100 million naira (US$637,000) in special damages from the Nigeria Police Force and Guarantee Trust Bank…

Nairobi, October 9, 2012–Security agents in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland shuttered private broadcaster Horseed FM on Saturday morning and ordered Internet service providers in the region to block the station’s website, according to local journalists.

Nairobi, October 5, 2012–Ethiopian authorities should halt their harassment of journalists covering the country’s Muslim community and their intimidation of citizens who have tried to speak to reporters about sensitive religious, ethnic, and political issues, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Police in the capital, Addis Ababa, briefly detained Marthe Van Der Wolf, a…