Africa

New York, February 5, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today delivered more than 600 petitions to Eritrean president Isaias Afewerki calling for the release of jailed Eritrean journalist Fesshaye Yohannes (commonly known as Joshua), a recipient of CPJ’s 2002 International Press Freedom Award. Fesshaye, the popular editor of the weekly Setit, Eritrea’s largest-circulation newspaper,…

New York, January 31, 2003–Six men accused of killing Mozambican journalist Carlos Cardoso were convicted today and sentenced to lengthy prison terms, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists’ (CPJ) representative at the trial in Mozambique’s capital, Maputo. Meanwhile, fugitive suspect Anibal dos Santos Junior, commonly known as Anibalzhino, who escaped from pretrial detention, was…

New York, January 30, 2003—A verdict in the trial of six men accused of killing Mozambican investigative reporter Carlos Cardoso is expected tomorrow. South African journalist Phillip Van Niekerk will represent the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on the final day of the trial. Van Niekerk, a former editor of the Johannesburg Mail & Guardian…

ETHIOPIA: New York, November 12, 2003—The Ethiopian Free Press Journalists’ Association (EFJA) has received a letter from the Justice Ministry, announcing that the organization is suspended, because of failure to comply with audit and licensing requirements. EFJA president, Kifle Mulat, says the organization is being targeted for political reasons, but the government says EFJA has…

New York, December 9, 2002—Liberian authorities released journalist Hassan Bility, whom authorities had held incommunicado since June 24 as a “prisoner of war.” According to news reports, Bility, editor of the independent weekly The Analyst, was released without being charged or tried. He left the country this weekend for an undisclosed location. On December 1,…

There were 139 journalists in prison around the world at the end of 2002 who were jailed for practicing their profession. The number is up significantly from the previous year, when 118 journalists were in jail. An analysis of the reasons behind this increase is contained in the introduction.At the beginning of 2003, CPJ sent…

New York, November 26, 2002—Islamic authorities in the northern Nigerian state of Zamfara issued a fatwa urging Muslims to kill Isioma Daniel, a writer for the private daily This Day, whose November 16 article about the Miss World pageant sparked deadly riots across the country. According to sources in the southern city of Lagos, the…

New York, November 20, 2002—The Kaduna offices of the Nigerian private daily This Day were burned down today by Muslim protesters who were angered by a news report the paper published about the Miss World pageant, to be held in the country early in December. Local sources said the protesters were reacting to an article…

New York, November 20, 2002—On Friday, November 15, an explosion destroyed the offices of the independent weekly National Pilot in Ilorin, the capital of Nigeria’s west central Kwara State. Five people were seriously injured in the blast—which local sources suspected was a politically motivated bomb attack—including the paper’s deputy editor-in-chief, Mudasiru Adewuyi. The explosion occurred…