Africa

FEBRUARY 8, 2005 Posted: February 11, 2005 Radio France Internationale CENSORED FM broadcasts of Radio France Internationale (RFI) were cut at around noon, according to RFI and international news reports. Communications Minister Pittang Tchalla told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that RFI had gone off air because of a “technical fault.” But AFP quoted a source close…

Comité para la Protección de los Periodistas REPORTAJES ESPECIAL DE TODAS PARTES DEL MUNDO Cuatro países sobresalen en el encarcelamiento de periodistas

New York, February 3, 2005–Four countries with long records of press repression–China, Cuba, Eritrea, and Burma–account for more than three-quarters of the journalists imprisoned around the world, a new analysis by the Committee to Protect Journalists has found.

New York, February 2, 2005—-A reporter with the Congolese private daily La Référence Plus was taken into custody on Monday and imprisoned in the western town of Matadi on defamation charges brought by two national oil executives. The Committee to Protect Journalists today called for his immediate release. In September, a Kinshasa court sentenced José…

FEBRUARY 2005 Posted: March 14, 2005 Cornelius Nduna, freelance THREATENED In early February, police began searching for Nduna, a freelance television producer and reporter who worked for several foreign media organizations, on suspicion of possessing “sensitive tapes” passed to him by an employee of the state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, according to his lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply disturbed by an ongoing government ban on news programming on Radio Dzialandzé Mutsamudu (RDM), a popular, privately owned station based in Mutsamudu, capital of the semi-autonomous island of Anjouan.

JANUARY 31, 2005 Posted: February 14, 2005 José Wakadila, La Référence PlusIMPRISONED Wakadila, a reporter with the private daily La Référence Plus, was taken into custody and imprisoned in the western town of Matadi on defamation charges brought by two national oil executives.

JANUARY 28, 2005 Posted: February 7, 2005 HornAfrik Radio ATTACKED Two unidentified men threw two grenades at the premises of private radio station HornAfrik in the capital, Mogadishu, at around 10 p.m., according to local press freedom group SOJON. The grenades exploded, but the station confirmed that there were no serious casualties or serious damage…

JANUARY 27, 2005 Posted: February 2, 2005 Jeremias Langa, STV THREATENED Two men commandeered Langa’s car in the capital, Maputo, forced him to drive around the city for a half hour, held guns to his head, and threatened to kill him, according to a statement from the private television station STV, where Langa works as…