MARCH 24, 2005 Posted: April 1, 2005 All Journalists CENSORED As part of a wide attempt by authorities in Niger to suppress independent media coverage of protests against a new tax on basic foodstuffs, electricity and water, Interior Minister Mounkaila Modi appeared on state television to warn journalists against covering the activities of a group…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about the continued detention of Abdirisak Ahmed Absuge, editor of www.guulane.com, the official Web site of faction leader Mohamed Dhere. According to local sources, Absuge was arrested on March 5 in the district of Jawhar, where Dhere is chairman of the self-appointed administration.
MARCH 22, 2005 Posted: April 1, 2005 Radio Télévision Ténéré (RTT) CENSORED Police in the western city of Zinder searched the offices of the privately owned broadcaster Radio Télévision Ténéré (RTT) and confiscated a videocassette containing footage of street protests against a new tax on basic foodstuffs, water and electricity. According to RTT officials quoted…
MARCH 22, 2005 Posted: March 23, 2005 Ahmed Suleyman Dhuhul, Radio Hargeisa Hoodo Axmed Qarbooshe, Radio Hargeisa HARASSED Dhuhul and Qarbooshe, reporters for government-owned Radio Hargeisa in the self-declared republic of Somaliland, were fired from their jobs after they were accused of working for Horyaal Radio, a pro-opposition station based in the United Kingdom. Horyaal…
New York, March 22, 2005—A Rwandan appeals court today stiffened the sentence against a newspaper editor as it upheld his conviction on charges that he defamed the deputy speaker of parliament in a 2004 article. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the ruling, saying it reflected the ongoing harassment of editors and reporters for Umuseso,…
New York, March 21, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists today wrote to Somalia’s president, Col. Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, urging him to investigate the continuing detention of Abdirisak Ahmed Absuge by forces loyal to faction leader Mohamed Dhere. Absuge is editor of www.guulane.com, Dhere’s official website. According to local sources, Absuge was arrested on March 5…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled by the apparently secret enactment of two new laws that threaten press freedom in the Gambia. Your Excellency signed these laws on December 28, 2004, but their promulgation was not made public until two months later, according to news reports and local sources. CPJ raised its concerns about these laws in a March 14, 2005, meeting with your ambassador to the United States, H.E. Dodou Bammy Jagne in Washington, D.C., attended by CPJ board member Clarence Page and CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Julia Crawford.
New York, March 16, 2005—BBC reporter Raphael Tenthani and Mabvuto Banda of the independent daily The Nation have been released on bail after being held overnight by police in the capital, Lilongwe. The two journalists were arrested yesterday at their homes in the southern city of Blantyre for reporting that the president feared ghosts may…
New York, March 16, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned that Mauritanian authorities detained a journalist for reporting on the illegal slave trade. According to press reports and a Mauritanian source, police detained freelance journalist Mohamed Ould Lamine Mahmoudi on Sunday, March 13, after he interviewed a woman in the southern town Mederdra who…