NIGERIA
MAY 2, 2005 Updated: May 26, 2005 Omo-Ojo Orobosa, Midwest Herald LEGAL ACTION, IMPRISONED Omo-Ojo Orobosa, publisher of the weekly Midwest Herald, was imprisoned for more than two weeks and accused of sedition after his publication accused First Lady Stella Obasanjo of corruption. His lawyer, Festus Keyamo, told CPJ that Orobosa was arrested at the…
American photographer detained
New York, April 27, 2005— Sudanese security forces in Darfur, Sudan, detained an American freelance photographer yesterday as he photographed a refugee camp. Hartford-based Brad Clift is under house arrest at a United States Agency for International Development office building after being detained in Nyala in the Darfur region of Sudan, the daily Hartford Courant…
SUDAN
APRIL 26, 2005 Posted: May 17, 2005 Brad Clift, freelance IMPRISONED Sudanese security forces detained Clift while he was taking photographs at an internally displaced persons camp outside Nyala, capital of Darfur’s southern state. Clift works for The Hartford Courant but was in Sudan as a freelancer traveling with the relief group, Hartford Catholic Worker,…
Radio station shuttered
New York, April 22, 2005—An independent radio station in the capital, Lomé, was shuttered on Wednesday by the High Audiovisual and Communications Authority (HAAC)—the same government agency that banned independent broadcasters from covering the campaign for this Sunday’s presidential elections. According to CPJ sources, the HAAC suspended Kanal FM for one month because of an…
SUDAN
APRIL 21, 2005 Posted: May 17, 2005 Mohamed Taha Mohamed Ahmed, Al-Wifaq LEGAL ACTION Al-Wifaq CENSORED Ahmed, an editor, was tried on criminal charges of insulting the Prophet Mohammed after publishing an April 21 article in the daily Al-Wifaq. The article, by the well-known Muslim historian Al-Maqrizi, called into question the Prophet Mohammed’s lineage, according…
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,…