CAMEROON
APRIL 20, 2005 Posted: May 12, 2005 Guibaï Gatama and Abdoulaye Oumaté L’Oeil du Sahel LEGAL ACTION. On April 20, a court in Maroua, the capital of Cameroon’s Far North Province, sentenced Guibaï Gatama, publication director of the independent weekly L’Oeil du Sahel, and Abdoulaye Oumaté, a journalist for the paper, to five months in…
SOMALIA
APRIL 20-28, 2005 Posted: May 4, 2005 Shacab HARASSED Abdirashid Qoransey, Shacab Abdi Farah Nur, Shacab HARASSED, LEGAL ACTION Security forces in the autonomous Puntland region attacked the premises of the weekly newspaper Shacab (Voice of the People) in the town of Garowe, breaking the front gate and damaging the editor’s car and other property,…
TOGO
APRIL 20, 2005 Posted: May 3, 2005 Kanal FM CENSORED The High Audiovisual and Communications Authority (HAAC) suspended Kanal FM, an.independent radio station in the capital, Lomé, for one month because of an April 18 editorial titled “Autopsy of an Electoral Campaign.” The editorial accused members of the ruling party of committing widespread human rights…
ZIMBABWE
APRIL 20, 2005 Posted: April 27, 2005 Davison Maruziva, The Standard HARASSED, LEGAL ACTION Savious Kwinika, The Standard HARASSED, LEGAL ACTION Police brought criminal charges against Standard editor Maruziva. The following day they also brought charges against reporter Kwinika. Both journalists were charged in connection with an April 10 story alleging election irregularities—specifically for deliberately…
Private broadcasters barred from election coverage
New York, April 20, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled by a new Togolese government order that bars private radio and television stations from reporting on the presidential election campaign, which is now in its final days. A directive issued Friday by Togo’s High Audiovisual and Communications Authority (known by its French acronym,…
MADAGASCAR
APRIL 19 Posted: May 31, 2005 Rolland Rasoamaharo, La Gazette de la Grande IleJames Ramarosaona, La Gazette de la Grande Ile LEGAL ACTION Rasoamaharo, publication director of the private, daily La Gazette de la Grande Ile, and editor Ramarosaona, were each sentenced on April 19 to one month in jail for criminal defamation in connection…
TOGO
APRIL 15, 2005 Posted: May 3, 2005 All private radio, television journalists CENSORED The High Audiovisual and Communications Authority (known by its French acronym, HAAC) issued a directive saying private broadcasters may not “carry out any media coverage” of the presidential candidates ahead of the April 24 vote. The HAAC directive also states that “private…
British journalists acquitted, deported
New York, April 15, 2005—Two British journalists detained in Zimbabwe during parliamentary elections left the country today after being acquitted of the criminal charge of reporting without accreditation from the government-controlled Media and Information Commission. Toby Harnden, chief foreign correspondent for the London-based Sunday Telegraph, and photographer Julian Simmonds boarded a plane today and safely…
PRESS STATEMENT
string of unsolved arson attacks, a series of unchecked threats, and the passage of restrictive new laws have created deep mistrust between the Gambia’s government and its small independent press. Suspicions have been compounded by the December 2004 murder of veteran journalist Deyda Hydara and the government’s failure to bring the perpetrators to justice. Over…