New York, May 22, 2003—In a recent interview, Eritrean president Isaias Afewerki justified his government’s continuing crackdown on the independent media there by saying that the media were spreading disinformation. In September 2001, authorities closed all private media outlets in the country and arrested independent journalists and political reform activists. Eighteen independent journalists remain in…
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is outraged by your government’s continuing harassment of Andrew Meldrum, Zimbabwe correspondent for the U.K.-based Guardian newspaper. Immigration officials ordered him today to leave the country.
New York, May 16, 2003—Andrew Meldrum, Zimbabwe correspondent for the U.K.-based Guardian newspaper, was ordered today by immigration officials in the capital, Harare, to leave the country. Meldrum went to the Department of Immigration today at 10:00 a.m. for a scheduled meeting with officials, where he was informed he had to leave Zimbabwe. Outside the…
New York, May 16, 2003—Zimbabwean immigration officials today deported Andrew Meldrum, Zimbabwe correspondent for the U.K.-based Guardian newspaper, from the country. Officials at Harare Airport forced Meldrum onto a London-bound Air Zimbabwe flight, ignoring a high court order staying the reporter’s deportation and instructing authorities to produce Meldrum for a court hearing on his expulsion.…
New York, May 15, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed by recent measures taken against the press in Sudan, including the arrest of one journalist and the closure of a newspaper. Noureddin Madani, editor of the daily Al-Sahafa, told CPJ that Yousef al-Bashir Moussa, the newspaper’s correspondent in the city of Nyala, (about…
New York, May 8, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is concerned for the safety of Andrew Meldrum, Zimbabwe correspondent for the U.K.-based newspaper The Guardian. A group of immigration officers visited the journalist’s home unannounced yesterday evening and demanded to speak with Meldrum, according to his wife.
New York, May 7, 2003—Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court ruled today that a section of the controversial Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) that criminalizes “publishing falsehoods” is unconstitutional. Section 80 of AIPPA stipulated that it was an “abuse of journalistic privilege” to publish false information, whether it was intentional or not. Journalists convicted…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about the deteriorating press freedom climate in Cameroon following the detention of three journalists from Cameroon’s only independent daily, Mutations, and the closure of the private radio station Magic FM. On April 13, the Société de presse et d’édition du Cameroun (Sopécam), a state-owned printing…
New York, April 16, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) urges Nigeria’s newly elected lawmakers to pass the Freedom of Information Bill, which has stalled in the Lower House of Parliament for more than three years. The bill, first proposed in December 1999 and modeled after the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, is endorsed by…
New York, April 11, 2003—Recently appointed Minister of Information Abednego Ntshangase announced on Tuesday, April 8, a new censorship policy for state media in the southern African kingdom of Swaziland. Speaking at his first appearance under his new portfolio before the House of Assembly, Ntshangase told parliamentarians, “The national television and radio stations are not…