Journalist jailed for five months for remarks in a bar
New York, September 19, 2006—A reporter for the Burundian state news agency was sentenced to five months in jail on Monday for slandering the state in a private barroom conversation, according to media reports and the journalist’s lawyer. Aloys Kabura, a correspondent for Agence Burundaise de Presse in the northern province of Kayenza, has been…
Journalist questioned over critical articles
September 18, 2006 Posted: September 22, 2006 Cyril Saïzonou, Djakpata HARASSED Police arrested Saïzonou, director of the private daily Djakpata, and questioned him about articles published in the September 1 and September 8 editions of the paper, according to CPJ sources. Several articles were critical of the police, while another alleged that a top government…
Journalists held over story on president’s son
September 15, 2006 Posted: September 22, 2006 Virgil Linkpon, La Diaspora de Sabbat Fulric Richard Couao-Zotti, La Diaspora de Sabbat IMPRISONED Linkpon and Couao-Zotti, respectively managing editor and editor of the private weekly La Diaspora de Sabbat, were arrested in connection with a story about the president’s family, according to CPJ sources in the capital…
After five years, Eritrean journalists still jailed in secret prisons without due process
New York, September 15, 2006—Five years after Eritrea’s brutal crackdown on the independent press, the Committee to Protect Journalists today called for the release of 13 journalists held incommunicado in secret jails and two other journalists forced into extended military service. Basic information about the jailed journalists—most of whom were swept up in a September…
Jailed state TV journalist freed without charge and fired
New York, September 15, 2006—A state television reporter jailed secretly for almost a week was released without charge on Thursday but learned that he had been fired from his job, according to CPJ sources. Dodou Sanneh, a senior TV producer with Gambia Radio and Television Services (GRTS), was arrested on September 8 after covering an…
A third journalist is sentenced to prison
New York, September 15, 2006—A court in Niger’s capital, Niamey, today sentenced journalist Salif Dago to six months in prison for publishing “false information,” according to local sources contacted by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Dago, a reporter for the private newspaper L’Enquêteur, is the third journalist to be sentenced to jail for his work…
Authorities intensify newspaper censorship and seizures
New York, September 14, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by increasing censorship of opposition and independent newspapers in Sudan. The press climate in the country has deteriorated in recent months against a backdrop of continuing ethnic killings in the western region of Darfur, and growing political unrest and protests over price rises.
Cameraman assaulted filming march
September 13, 2006 Posted: September 22, 2006 Michael Saburi, Reuters Television ASSAULTED, IMPRISONED Saburi, a freelance cameraman for Reuters TV, was assaulted by police officers and jailed for filming a banned trade union march in the capital Harare, according to the Media Institute of Southern Africa, and his lawyer.
Journalists held over toxic waste report
September 12, 2006 Posted: September 22, 2006 Seydou Coulibaly, Le Jour Plus Edouard Gonto, Le Jour Plus Frédéric Koffi, Le Jour Plus HARASSED, LEGAL ACTION Coulibaly and Gonto were summoned on September 12 and detained overnight over a September 11 article titled “Toxic waste: Mrs. Gbagbo at the heart of the scandal,” according to Patrice…
State TV reporter jailed after covering opposition campaign
New York, September 12, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned the secret detention of a television reporter in the Gambia who was covering an opposition candidate running in the September 22 presidential election. Dodou Sanneh of state-owned Gambia Radio and Television Services (GRTS) was detained September 8, according to sources who did not wish…