New York, January 18, 2007–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the ruling by a court in the northern breakaway republic of Somaliland on Wednesday to try three jailed journalists under archaic criminal laws in connection with a story critical of the president. A regional court in the capital, Hargeysa, ruled that editor Ali Abdi Dini,…
New York, January 16, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the jailing since Friday of the director of a private Kinyarwanda-language newspaper in the capital, Kigali, for publishing a letter critical of the government. Agnès Nkusi-Uwimana of the bi-monthly Umurabyo was still being detained today at the Muhima police station on charges of discrimination and…
New York, January 16, 2007—Four private broadcasters returned to the air today, a day after being shut down by Somalia’s U.N.-backed transitional government, according to local journalists and the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ). HornAfrik radio and television, Radio Shabelle, Radio IQK (Holy Quran Radio), and Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television resumed broadcasting after a closed-door…
New York, January 12, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a government decision on Tuesday to suspend a private radio station for 15 days and ban a foreign journalist from the domestic airwaves indefinitely in response to critical coverage of the Togolese soccer association (FTF). Radio Victoire in the capital, Lomé, remained off the air…
JANUARY 11, 2007 Posted February 6, 2007 Olurotimi Akanbi, Addis Fortune LEGAL ACTION Akanbi, a copy editor for the private English-language business weekly Addis Fortune in the capital Addis Ababa, was charged with contempt of court in connection with a December 31, 2006, headline critical of the Ethiopian judiciary, according to CPJ sources. The headline,…
New York, January 11, 2007—The director of a newspaper in the capital, Kinshasa, was jailed today for an 11-month term and his publication suspended for six weeks on a criminal defamation charge, according to the local press freedom group Journaliste en Danger (JED) and local journalists. Rigobert Kwakala Kash, who also edits the private twice-weekly…
New York, January 11, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the Nigerian government’s apparent crackdown on critical reporting, as security service agents reporting directly to the president engaged in the second newspaper raid in as many days. State Security Service (SSS) officials were holding Dan Akpovwa, publisher of the private weekly Abuja Inquirer, incommunicado late…
New York, January 10, 2007—An article raising critical questions about Nigeria’s ruling party led state security agents to raid the offices of an Abuja daily, seize documents, and detain the story’s author, a newspaper executive told the Committee to Protect Journalists today. State Security Service (SSS) officials were still holding reporter Danladi Ndayebo, a reporter…
New York, January 4, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by reports that Somalia’s transitional government in the southern city of Baidoa detained a radio reporter covering fighting between government forces and Islamist militiamen. Local journalists and the National Union of Somali Journalists said Hassan Mohammed Abikar, a correspondent for the Mogadishu-based private radio…
New York, January 3, 2007—A court in Burundi today rebuffed the government, ordering the release of three journalists and rejecting the prosecution’s claim that their reporting in connection with an alleged coup plot compromised public security. A panel of judges in the capital Bujumbura acquitted editor Serge Nibizi and journalist Domitile Kiramvu of Radio Publique…