Ossébi’s byline missing as sensitive case moves forward
A French judge on Tuesday authorized an anti-corruption group to pursue a complaint that questions how the leaders of three oil-rich, central African nations amassed their personal assets. One byline was absent in news media coverage: Bruno Ossébi, an online Congolese columnist and one of the few local journalists who had covered the sensitive issue.…
NABJ honors persecuted Zimbabwean journalist
On Thursday, the U.S.-based National Association of Black Journalists announced the winner of its 2009 Percy Qoboza Foreign Journalists Award: Zimbabwean journalist Anderson Shadreck Manyere. Half a world away, however, Manyere, left, lingered in a hospital in the capital, Harare, traumatized by nearly four months of imprisonment, according to his lawyer.
Congolese government reacts to CPJ report
The government of the Republic of Congo reacted over the weekend to last week’s CPJ special report looking into the unsolved death of Franco-Congolese online journalist Bruno Jacquet Ossébi. We welcome the government’s interest in the case and take note that an official spokesman did not dispute our findings.
Six senators call for Ebrima Manneh’s immediate release
Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) leads a group of six senators to call for the immediate release of the former state Daily Observer newspaper, “Chief” Ebrima Manneh today. Colleagues at the newspaper say they witnessed two plainclothes Gambian National Intelligence Agency officers whisk Manneh, right, away in July 2006. He has not been seen since despite repeated calls…
Republic of Congo Special Report: From a Fatal Fire, Many Questions
Bruno Jacquet Ossébi, a Franco-Congolese journalist known for outspoken coverage of government corruption in the Republic of Congo, dies after a mysterious fire burns down his house. By Mohamed Keita with reporting by Sarah Turbeaux
Republic of Congo Audio Report: From a Fatal Fire, Many Questions
In our special report, “From a Fatal Fire, Many Questions,” CPJ’s Mohamed Keita and Sarah Turbeaux examine the mysterious death of Bruno Jacquet Ossébi, a Franco-Congolese journalist. Here, Keita describes a sensitive lawsuit against three African leaders that Ossébi had covered in his writings. Listen to the mp3 on the player above, or right click here…
Mission Journal: Mysterious raid draws new concerns
On March 2, 2006, Kenyan state agents conducted a commando-style midnight raid on the Standard Group, owner of an independent daily and KTN Television in the capital, Nairobi. The agents seized computers and tapes, vandalized a printing press, and burned roughly 20,000 copies of The Standard, Chief Executive Officer Tom Mshindi told me recently in…
Petition seeks a ‘soft law’ ruling in Manneh disappearance
Eyewitnesses saw him being led away. “We were in our Banjul newsroom on July 7, 2006, working on the next issue of the Daily Observer, when two plainclothes officers with the Gambian National Intelligence Agency approached Chief,” wrote Observer editor and correspondent Ousman Darboe. “I knew one of the officers as a Corporal Sey. They…
Keep digging into disappearance of Gambia’s Manneh
The whereabouts of “Chief” Ebrima Manneh, right, the Gambian journalist who has been missing since his arrest by state security agents in July 2006, has become an urgent issue again in the country’s media houses, homes, and human rights offices. The question needs to be studied carefully, and no one should draw quick conclusions.