New York, May 4, 2006—The case against prominent journalist Madiambal Diagne was dropped on Tuesday on a procedural issue, ending a legal saga that spanned nearly two years and galvanized the Senegalese press. But the Committee to Protect Journalists expressed concern that the criminal charges used to jail Diagne for more than two weeks in…
New York, May 3, 2006—Two journalists from Botswana’s state broadcaster were arrested by Zimbabwean police on April 30, held for two days, and charged with violating Zimbabwe’s draconian Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), Botswana’s director of broadcasting services, Bapasi Mphusu, confirmed today. Botswana Television (BTV) reporter Beauty Mokoba and cameraman Koketso…
New York, October 5, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned that Sudanese security forces have held Abu Obeida Abdallah, a reporter for the pro-government daily Al-Ra’y Al-Aam, incommunicado and without charge since Friday. “No evidence has been disclosed to suggest Abu Obeida Abdallah has committed a crime,” CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said.…
APRIL 24, 2006 Posted: May 1, 2006 Anselme Masua, Radio Okapi ATTACKED Soldiers from the Republican Guard, a military detachment that falls under the president’s authority, attacked Masua, a journalist for Radio Okapi, at a military base in the central city of Kisangani, according to a United Nations spokesman and the local press freedom organization…
APRIL 20, 2006Posted: May 1, 2006Fortune Bemba, ThalassaHARASSED, LEGAL ACTION Bemba, director of the private Brazzaville-based weekly Thalassa, was arrested and charged with defamation, insulting the head of state, and “propagating false news,” according to the press freedom organization Journaliste en Danger (JED), which is based in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. Those charges are not criminal…
New York, May 1, 2006—The publisher of Cameroon’s English-language tabloid The Chronicle was beaten unconscious by the bodyguard and the driver of an opposition leader, local journalists told the Committee to Protect Journalists today. Eric Motomu, who also edits the paper, told CPJ he was attacked on Friday at a rally in the opposition stronghold…
New York, May 1, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed at the arrest on Friday of Tchanguis Vatankah, founder of an independent radio station and president of the Chadian Union of Private Radios. Police took Vatankah from his home in the capital, N’Djamena, but did not show any arrest warrant, according to Evariste Toldé,…