Africa

New York, January 13, 2012– The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the recent spate of arrests of independent reporters in the semi-autonomous republic of Somaliland. 

New York, January 10, 2012–Police in Gambia are harassing a journalist for reporting farmers’ complaints against a local official accused of mismanaging public resources, according to local journalists and news reports.

New York, January 10, 2012–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on authorities in the semi-autonomous republic of Somaliland to explain why they have detained Royal Television correspondent Yusuf Ali since Sunday. 

On January 8, 1912, South African intellectuals–including pioneering black newspaper publishers Pixley ka Isaka Seme, editor of Abantu-Batho, and John Langalibalele Dube, editor of Ilanga lase Natal–formed Africa’s oldest liberation movement, the African National Congress (ANC), in the Wesleyan Church in Bloemfontein.

The African media community lost a central voice this week with the passing of Samuel Kiendrebeogo, the veteran host of weekly media magazine Médias d’Afrique et D’Ailleurs on Voice of America’s French service. Sam, as he was known, died while vacationing in his native Burkina Faso. He was 63.

New York, January 5, 2012–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes Friday’s decision by a judge in Abidjan to release on bail former Ivorian state television presenter Hermann Aboa and calls on prosecutors to drop the politicized charges against him.

New York, January 5, 2012–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities in the semi-autonomous Somali region of Puntland to explain why they have held two journalists without charge since Monday.

New York, January 5, 2012–The government of Gabon, led by President Ali Bongo, on Tuesday imposed suspensions on a TV station and a newspaper for coverage of opposition leader André Mba Obame, according to local journalists and news reports.

New York, January 4, 2012–Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo shut down broadcasts of the French government-funded Radio France Internationale over its coverage of the aftermath of the November 2011 presidential elections, news reports said.

Just over 55 years ago, on New Year’s Eve 1957, trailblazing South African journalist Henry Nxumalo was murdered while investigating suspicious deaths at an abortion clinic in Sophiatown, a suburb west of Johannesburg.