New York, January 14, 2008—National security agents for the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia arrested two journalists for the independent, Mogadishu-based Somaliweyn Radio on Sunday. According to Somaliweyn Radio sources, security agents seized reporter Bashir Mohammed Abdulkadir at the station and took him to National Security Agency headquarters for questioning. Local journalists said the arrests…
JANUARY 10, 2008 Posted January 18, 2008 Radio LyambaiCENSORED The Ministry of Information has extended a ban on call-in programs at Radio Lyambai in the western province of Mongu. On November 30, 2007, the ministry’s director of press and planning, Juliana Mwila, sent a letter to the station banning its call-in programs and calling them…
JANUARY 9, 2008 Posted February 21, 2008 Maurice Kayombo, Les Grands EnjeuxIMPRISONED Police in the capital Kinshasa picked up Kayombo, a reporter for the private monthly Les Grands Enjeux, after he went to the office of Mining Ministry Permanent Secretary Christophe Kaninio to seek comments about allegations of corruption for a story that had not…
CPJ mourns the loss of Niger radio director New York, January 9, 2008—CPJ mourns the untimely death of the director of Niger’s first independent radio station, Radio R & M (Radio and Music), based in the capital, Niamey, after his car drove over a landmine yesterday on the city’s outskirts. Abdou Mahamane, commonly known as…
New York, January 8, 2008—Police in Dar-es-Salaam said Monday that they had two suspects in custody after armed men stormed the newsroom of a popular vernacular newspaper and seriously injured two top journalists, according to local reporters and news accounts. Managing Editor Saed Kubenea of the Kiswahili-language Mwana Halisi and veteran journalist Ndimara Tegambwage, a…
New York, January 7, 2008—Police arrested freelance journalist Idle Moallim on Sunday in the northeastern city of Bossasso in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, local journalists told CPJ. Police arrested Moallim for “misreporting” a story on human trafficking in Bossasso and are holding him at Bossasso central prison, according to local journalists. Moallim is a…
New York, January 4, 2008—State regulators in the Guinean capital, Conakry, summarily suspended two private newspapers on Monday and barred their journalists from practice for three months. Local journalists and news reports say the bans were connected to December articles critical of top government officials.
New York, January 2, 2008— Three Ethiopian journalists told CPJ the government denied them applications to launch new newspapers on Tuesday. All the journalists spent 17 months in prison following the country’s 2005 elections. The newspapers were slated to become the country’s first independent political publications since authorities banned eight local papers and forced at…
DECEMBER 28, 2007Posted February 1, 2008 Arnando Chicoca, Radio Ecclesia and Apostolado IMPRISONED A court in the southwestern coastal town of Namibe sentenced Radio Ecclesia and Apostolado correspondent Arnando Chicoca to one month imprisonment and a 17,000 kwanza (US$227) fine. Prosecutor Bartholomew Fair said Chicoca was prosecuted for disobeying police under Article 186 of the…