Africa

  

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…

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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…

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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.

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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.

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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…

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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…

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ICU authorities censor radio station, detain journalist

New York, September 11, 2006—Islamist authorities detained a journalist for two days and shut an independent radio station for a similar period in separate incidents this weekend, according to news reports and the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ). In Beledweyne, a western town controlled by the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), authorities jailed journalist Osman…

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In Sudan, jailed U.S. reporter to be freed

New York, September 8, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the promised release of a U.S. reporter imprisoned in Sudan since August 6 on espionage charges. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir agreed today to release Paul Salopek, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Chicago Tribune, Chadian interpreter Suleiman Abakar Moussa, driver Idriss Abdelrahman Anu on…

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Editor kidnapped and beheaded

New York, September 6, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists deplores the kidnapping and beheading in Sudan of a newspaper editor. Masked gunmen bundled Mohammed Taha Mohammed Ahmed, editor-in-chief of the private daily Al-Wifaq, into a car outside his home in east Khartoum late Tuesday. Police found his severed head next to his body today in…

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Journalists given suspended jail sentence for defamation

New York, September 6, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the jail sentences given to two journalists in Senegal for defamation. A court in the capital Dakar on Tuesday handed down six-month suspended prison sentences to Alioune Ndiaye and Saliou Sambe, respectively director and reporter with the private daily L’Observateur, according to local news reports…

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