RWANDA: Radio host detained for 10 days, charged over 1994 genocide story
MAY 11, 2007 Posted June 19, 2007 John Williams Ntwali, City Radio CENSORED, IMPRISONED Ntwali, the host of a cultural Kinyarwanda-language bi-weekly program on private City Radio, was arrested on the orders of station’s program director, Alex Rutareka, and later charged with promoting “genocidal ideology” in connection with the broadcast of a Hutu Christian priest’s…
In DRC, journalist jailed after seeking comment from official
New York, May 10, 2007— The Committee to Protect Journalists is troubled by the detention since Sunday of a private newspaper director in the capital, Kinshasa, after he sought comments from a government official. CPJ last week named DRC one of the world’s worst backsliders on press freedom. Jean Pierre Phambu Lutette, director of the…
CPJ outraged by police beating of award-winning media lawyer in Zimbabwe
New York, May 10, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists today called for a full and transparent investigation into the police beating on Tuesday of prominent Zimbabwean human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa, a 2005 recipient of CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award, and three other attorneys.
In Puntland, radio contributor shot during army raid
New York, May 9, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists mourns the death on Saturday of Mohammed Abdullahi Khalif, a contributor to the private radio station Voice of Peace in Somalia’s northeastern, semi-autonomous region of Puntland. Khalif was killed by crossfire while covering an army raid on an illegal gun market in the city of Galkayo.…
CPJ mourns death of AP African correspondent Anthony Mitchell
New York, May 8, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists extends its condolences to the colleagues and family of respected Associated Press reporter Anthony Mitchell, who was killed in a weekend plane crash in Cameroon. Mitchell, 39, a staff reporter with the AP’s Kenya bureau, was among 114 passengers killed when a Kenya Airways aircraft crashed…
SOMALIA: Radio correspondent detained over shooting report
MAY 7, 2007 Posted June 7, 2007 Hassan Mayow, Radio Shabelle HARASSED Mayow, a correspondent for the leading independent station Radio Shabelle, was detained overnight by government troops in Afgoye, 18 miles west of the capital, Mogadishu. The detention came in connection with a story on the killing of three food aid recipients allegedly shot…
NIGERIA: Cameraman beaten unconscious by police
MAY 1, 2007 Posted May 7, 2007 Dare Folorunso, Ondo State Radiovision Corporation ATTACKED Folorunso, a camera operator for the Ondo State Radiovision Corporation (OSRC), was assaulted by a dozen police officers after a police inspector accused him of filming an offensive shot of her during a May Day celebration in a sports stadium in…
Backsliders: The 10 countries where press freedom has most deteriorated
New York, May 2, 2007–Three nations in sub-Saharan Africa are among the places worldwide where press freedom has deteriorated the most over the last five years, a new analysis by the Committee to Protect Journalists has found. Ethiopia, where the government launched a massive crackdown on the private press by shutting newspapers and jailing editors,…