Online reporter arrested
June 26, 2006 Posted: July 28, 2006 Hussein Yasin Godegode, idamaale.com HARASSED Police in the northeastern region of Puntland arrested online journalist Godegode in the city of Galkayo after he wrote critical reports about the regional authorities there, according to the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) and another CPJ source. Godegode works for idamaale.com,…
Television presenter rearrested, charged with sedition
New York, June 26, 2006—State security agents arrested a presenter for Nigeria’s leading private television station today for the second time in two weeks and announced sedition charges against him, a manager at African Independent Television (AIT) told the Committee to Protect Journalists. The executive chairman of AIT’s parent company, Raymond Dokpesi, confirmed the detention…
Radio journalist beaten, detained
JUNE 23, 2006 Posted: July 10, 2006 Augusto Queba Barbosa, Bombolom FM ATTACKED, HARASSED Police arrested Barbosa, a reporter for the private radio station Bombolom FM in the southwestern town of Bolama, after he broadcast a report accusing a local police officer of violence against a woman, according to the pan-African news agency Panapress and…
Journalist convicted in secret in defamation case, JED says
New York, June 23, 2006—A journalist imprisoned in the Democratic Republic of Congo since April on defamation charges was secretly convicted and sentenced to four months in jail over a week ago, a press freedom group reported today. The Kinshasa-based organization, Journaliste en Danger (JED), told the Committee to Protect Journalists that one of its…
CPJ condemns brutal murder of Swedish photographer
New York, June 23, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply shocked by the killing of award-winning Swedish journalist and photographer Martin Adler, who was shot by an unidentified gunman while filming a demonstration in the Somali capital Mogadishu today. Adler, a long-time contributor to Britain’s Channel 4 News, was freelancing for several newspapers including…
CPJ condemns detention of National Geographic photographer
New York, June 20, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the four-day detention of veteran freelance photographer, Ed Kashi, who was on assignment for U.S. magazine National Geographic in the oil-rich Niger Delta region. Kashi, a U.S. citizen, was arrested June 16 along with his Nigerian fixer, Elias Courson, while photographing an oil facility in…
CPJ urges president to probe attacks on press
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is troubled by a recent string of attacks on journalists in Liberia, some of which were carried out by government security forces. The Press Union of Liberia wrote to you on May 30 to express concern about these attacks and call for an investigation. However, despite an Information Ministry statement the following day affirming the government’s commitment to press freedom, there has been no evidence of an investigation into these incidents nor any public effort to punish those responsible.
Radio station closed, journalists harassed
New York, June 19, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the closure of a radio station in Somalia, and the brief detention by militiamen of two of its journalists, over a report of an alleged Ethiopian incursion. Somalia’s weakened transitional government, which is based in Baidoa, 155 miles (250 kilometers) northwest of the…
Newspaper editor detained overnight for critical article
June 18, 200 Posted: June 20, 2006 Mohammed Abdi Urad, Jamhuuriya HARASSED Urad, an editor at the Somali-language daily Jamhuuriya in the self-declared northern republic of Somaliland, was arrested on the orders of the High Court after the paper published an article criticizing local lawmakers. Urad was held overnight in Somaliland’s capital, Hargeisa, before being…