NIGERIA
OCTOBER 11, 2005 Posted October 17, 2005 Owei Kobina Sikpi, Weekly Star IMPRISONED Sikpi, publisher of the tabloid Weekly Star, was arrested by Nigeria’s State Security Service (SSS) in the southern city of Port Harcourt, and held without charge, the paper’s editor, Obinna Ahiaidu told CPJ. He said the arrest was over an article that…
Critical journalist badly beaten by unidentified assailants
New York, October 11, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists voiced alarm today at the savage beating of publication director Dimas Dzikodo, whose weekly Le Forum de la Semaine is strongly critical of Togolese authorities. Unidentified attackers knocked Dzilan from his motorcycle on Sunday in the capital Lomé and beat him, local sources told CPJ. They…
One year later, an editor still jailed in Sierra Leone
New York, October 4, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is outraged that journalist Paul Kamara remains in jail in Sierra Leone a year after being convicted of “seditious libel” for articles criticizing President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. Kamara was convicted on October 5, 2004, and sent to Pademba Road Prison in the capital, Freetown, to serve…
KENYA
OCTOBER 3, 2005 Posted: December 8, 2005 Anderson Ojwang’, The East African Standard ATTACKED Baraka Karama, Kenya Television Network (KTN) HARASSED, THREATENED Ojwang’, a correspondent for the independent daily The East African Standard, was beaten by youths bearing whips and sticks while trying to cover a government-organized meeting in the western town of Kakamega. The…
CPJ voices concerns in meeting with Chad ambassador
Washington, October 3, 2005—After meeting today with a delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists, a top Chadian diplomat promised to convey concerns over press freedom violations in Chad to his country’s president, Idriss Déby. In a session with Mahamoud Adam Bechir, Chad’s ambassador to the United States, CPJ representatives called on Chadian authorities to…
Three radio stations shuttered by religious leader
New York, October 3, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is troubled by the forced closure on Friday of three radio stations in the Muslim holy city of Touba, center of the Senegalese Muslim community known as the mourides. In a recorded statement broadcast by local radio stations, chief caliph Serigne Saliou Mbacké ordered all three…
SENEGAL
SEPTEMBER 30, 2005 Posted October 13, 2005 Radio Télévision Sénégalaise Disso Hizbut Tarqiyah CENSORED In a recorded statement broadcast by local radio stations, chief caliph Serigne Saliou Mbacké ordered all three FM radio stations based in the Muslim holy city of Touba to vacate within three days. Touba is the center of the Senegalese Muslim…
Jail for reporting on corruption in famine aid distribution
New York, September 29, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned the jail sentence given to a magazine journalist who reported on alleged corruption in the distribution of food aid during this year’s famine in Niger. On Tuesday, a court in the northern town of Agadez convicted Abdoulaye Harouna, publication director of the monthly Echos…
NIGER
SEPTEMBER 27, 2005 Posted October 11, 2005 Abdoulaye Harouna, Echos Express LEGAL ACTION A court in the northern town of Agadez convicted Abdoulaye Harouna, publication director of the monthly Echos Express, of defaming the local governor, Yahaya Yendaka. The court sentenced him to four months in jail and fined him 520,000 CFA francs (US$950). Harouna…