JULY 22, 2005 Posted: August 17, 2005 Radio Publique Africaine CENSORED RPA fell silent around 5 p.m. local time as a large group of police broke into the station compound, padlocked its studios, and cut off its transmitter, local sources said. The closure took place despite an earlier compromise deal between the authorities and RPA.
JULY 28, 2005 Posted: August 17, 2005 Jean Pierre Phambu Lutette, La Tolérance IMPRISONED, LEGAL ACTION The managing director of the small private newspaper La Tolérance was arrested by judicial police, who accused him of “discrediting” a state prosecutor in an article published in his newspaper. Jean Pierre Phambu Lutette was jailed in a cell…
JULY 27, 2005 Posted: August 17, 2005 Radiodiffusion Télévision Ivoirienne (RTI) HARASSED, CENSORED A group of armed, uniformed soldiers stormed the Abidjan offices of state broadcaster Radiodiffusion Télévision Ivoirienne (RTI) and instructed directors not to broadcast footage of opposition members, according to CPJ sources and local news reports. The soldiers identified themselves as members of…
AUGUST 15, 2005 Updated: October17, 2005 Sy Koumbo Singa Gali, L’ObservateurGarondé Djarma, freelance IMPRISONED, LEGAL ACTION Chadian journalist Sy Koumbo Singa Gali was sentenced to one year in prison for “inciting hatred,” the fourth reporter jailed in a month in what local journalists called a growing crackdown on the independent press.
AUGUST 2005 Posted September 8, 2005 Eddy Péhé, Le Nouveau RéveilTHREATENED Péhé, editor of pro-opposition daily Le Nouveau Réveil, told CPJ that he had received death threats over the phone from anonymous callers who accused him of supporting the rebels that have controled the northern half of Ivory Coast since 2002. Péhé said he believed…
AUGUST 12-15, 2005 Updated: December 1, 2005 Andrew Mwenda, Monitor Publications IMPRISONED, LEGAL ACTION An independent radio and print journalist was arrested on August 12 in connection with a talk show on KFM radio focusing on the July helicopter crash that killed southern Sudanese leader John Garang. Andrew Mwenda, a journalist with Monitor Publications, was…
New York, August 15, 2005—A Chadian journalist was sentenced to one year in prison today for “inciting hatred”, the fourth reporter jailed in a month in what local journalists called a growing crackdown on the independent press. A court in the capital N’Djamena convicted Sy Koumbo Singa Gali, publication director of the privately-owned weekly L’Observateur,…
New York, August 15, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists denounces the sedition charge brought today against radio talk show host Andrew Mwenda for remarks last week on the independent KFM radio station. The station also remained off the air today, four days after the government forced its closing in retaliation for the show, which focused…
AUGUST 12, 2005 Updated: December 1, 2005 Kelvin Jakachira, Daily News LEGAL ACTION Jakachira, accused of working without accreditation for the banned Daily News, went on trial in a Harare court, according to his lawyer and the Media Institute for Southern Africa (MISA). Jakachira faced up to two years in prison in what was seen…