The Gambia orders BBC journalist to leave country
Gambian authorities detained Thomas Fessy, the West Africa correspondent of BBC World News, for several hours at the capital’s international airport on September 5, 2012, and ordered him to leave the country within 48 hours, the BBC reported. Fessy returned to Senegal on September 7, 2012.
Ivoirian journalist attacked by minister’s security detail
Lagos, Nigeria, September 12, 2012–An Ivoirian government security detail assaulted a journalist covering the eviction of a senior official’s family on Friday, seizing his equipment and leaving him bleeding and bruised, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the attack and calls on authorities to ensure the perpetrators are brought to justice.…
Ethiopia should release journalists still in prison
Nairobi, September 11, 2012–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on the Ethiopian government to set free six journalists in prison for their work, a day after Swedish journalists Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye were pardoned and released from Kality Prison in the capital Addis Ababa.
In Cryptocat, lessons for technologists and journalists
Alhamdulillah! Finally, a technologist designed a security tool that everyone could use. A Lebanese-born, Montreal-based computer scientist, college student, and activist named Nadim Kobeissi had developed a cryptography tool, Cryptocat, for the Internet that seemed as easy to use as Facebook Chat but was presumably far more secure.
In Nigeria, soldiers beat journalist covering demolition
Nigerian soldiers beat Leadership Newspapers reporter David-Chyddy Eleke, confiscated his camera, and arrested him for taking pictures of the demolition of buildings in Awka, in Anambra State in Nigeria’s southeast region on September 6, 2012, according to local journalists and news reports.
Gabon opposition TV station reports attack
On September 5, 2012, the studios of TV+, a private television station in the capital, Libreville, owned by André Mba Obame, the country’s main opposition leader, were attacked by six unknown assailants, Agence France-Presse quoted Editor-in-Chief Ismaël Obiang Nze as saying. In the attack around 3 a.m. local time, a security guard was hit on the…
Signs of justice for battered Nigerian photojournalist
Hardly ever do Nigerian journalists get justice for assaults suffered in the line of duty. But things may be set to change with the case of Benedict Uwalaka, a photojournalist with Leadership Newspapers, who on August 9 was brutally assaulted at a government hospital in Lagos State. The first step toward justice came 22 days…
Dear CPJ: Some malware from your ‘friend’
We talk a lot about hacking attacks against individual journalists here, but what typifies an attempt to access a reporter’s computer? Joel Simon, CPJ’s executive director, received an email last week that reflects some characteristics of a malware attack against a journalist or activist. There was nothing particularly notable about the targeting. (Like many reporters,…