Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the imprisonment of Maman Abou, director of the private weekly newspaper Le Républicain. At a closed, secret trial on November 7, Abou was sentenced to six months in prison for criminal defamation. Neither Abou nor his lawyers were present at the trial, according to Abou’s colleagues, who are in constant contact with him. Abou is currently being held at the Central Prison in the capital, Niamey.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is disturbed by the continued imprisonment of three journalists working for privately owned Sido radio station. According to local sources, police in Ségou, a city in southern Mali, arrested program host Chériff Haïdara; radio director Mamoutou Traoré; and reporter and program host Gata Ba on October 20, 24, and 26, respectively.
New York, November 5, 2003–Police officers in Equatorial Guinea arrested journalist Rodrigo Angue Nguema at his home in the capital, Malabo, on November 3. Angue Nguema works as a correspondent for the wire service Agence France-Presse (AFP), as well as several other foreign news organizations, and is one of the only independent journalists in the…
New York, October 29, 2003–The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today released an updated version of its journalist security handbook, titled “On Assignment: A Guide to Reporting in Dangerous Situations.” This new edition, which is available in hard copy and online (read or download PDF), draws on lessons learned in the most recent war in…
New York, October 27, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is outraged that four directors of the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), the company that owns the country’s only independent daily, the Daily News, were arrested today and will spend tonight in police custody in the capital, Harare. The four directors—ANZ CEO Samuel Sipepa Nkomo,…
New York, October 23, 2003— The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is disturbed that Senegalese authorities have refused to lift an October 6 expulsion order against Sophie Malibeaux, correspondent for Radio France Internationale (RFI). At the time, the order was temporarily reversed, but Malibeaux has again been ordered to leave the country. Senegalese authorities accused…
New York, October 22, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) strongly condemns the Tuesday, October 21, assassination of Jean Hélène, correspondent for Radio France Internationale (RFI) in Ivory Coast’s capital, Abidjan. According to diplomats and eyewitnesses, Hélène was shot by a police officer on Tuesday evening outside the national police headquarters in central Abidjan while…
New York, October 20, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the Friday, October 17, arson attack on the offices of the private, biweekly Independent newspaper, located in a suburb of the capital, Banjul. According to local journalists, on the evening of October 17, three unidentified men assaulted a private security guard in front of the…
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned that criminal charges have been brought against Paul Kamara, managing editor of the For Di People newspaper, and three staff members of the John Love Printing Press, which prints the paper. The charges stem from an October 3 article in the paper implying that Your Excellency is a convict.
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned that criminal charges have been brought against Paul Kamara, managing editor of the For Di People newspaper, and three staff members of the John Love Printing Press, which prints the paper. The charges stem from an October 3 article in the paper implying that Your Excellency is a convict.