New York, December 18, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by an upsurge in arrests and the harassment of journalists by rival groups battling for control of Somalia. Both the Islamists who hold Mogadishu and the U.N.-backed transitional government based in Baidoa, northwest of the capital, have cracked down on the press this month.…
New York, December 14, 2006—Three private radio journalists returned to prison today after their one-day trial in the capital, Bujumbura, according to local journalists. The three have been jailed for more than two weeks while a fourth journalist went into hiding after receiving a judicial summons. Since September, the government has cracked down on three…
December 8, 2006 Dominic Mahlangu, Sunday Times Carlos Litulo, freelance HARASSED Police in the southeastern village of Xicumbane detained investigative reporter Mahlangu and freelance photographer Litulo for 14 hours without charge and confiscated their notebooks, cell phones, and a camera, according to CPJ interviews and news reports. A police official ordered the arrests after Mahlangu…
November 24, 2006 Posted December 8, 2006 Abdulahi Yasin Jama, Radio Warsan and Somali Broadcasting Corporation IMPRISONED Jama, a reporter for the private, Baidoa-based Radio Warsan and the private, Bossasso-based Somali Broadcasting Corporation, was arrested by authorities of the transitional federal government after being summoned to the presidential palace in Baidoa, according to local journalists.…
New York, December 7, 2006–The number of journalists jailed worldwide for their work increased for the second consecutive year, and one in three is now an Internet blogger, online editor, or Web-based reporter, according to an analysis by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
New York, December 4, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned at the jailing in Benin of two journalists convicted of criminal defamation. A court in the capital Cotonou sentenced editor Clément Adéchian and reporter Cécil Adjévi of the private daily L’Informateur to six months in prison on December 2. It also fined them…
New York, December 4, 2006—Authorities in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland in northeast Somalia have arrested a correspondent for a private radio station in the Islamist-controlled capital Mogadishu, according to the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) and local journalists. Puntland supports the weak, U.N.-backed interim government which is in conflict with the Islamists controlling…