Your Excellency: As an organization of journalists dedicated to the defense of press freedom worldwide, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the ongoing prosecution of newscaster Frank Bagonza Kimoone and reporter Joseph Kasimbazi of the community radio station Voice of Tooro.
New York, March 10, 2000 — On February 23, authorities in Cameroon interrogated three journalists from the provincial station Radio Buea about a broadcast that criticized the government’s treatment of English-speaking Cameroonians, according to sources in Buea, a small rural town in Anglophone southwestern Cameroon. The program, titled “Refugees in France and Britain,” featured interviews…
New York, March 7, 2000 — The family of jailed journalist Andre Domingos Mussamo are suffering dire financial need as a result of his prolonged incarceration, according to an appeal received by CPJ on March 3. Their telephone service has been cut off, and authorities have confiscated many of their possessions. Under Angola’s notorious state…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) strongly condemns the prosecution of free-lance journalist Rafael Marques, whose trial date has been set for March 9. We believe that the charges of criminal defamation pressed against Marques, and his continued harassment by the Angolan government, reflect Your Excellency’s deep-seated disregard for freedom of expression, an internationally-recognized human right. Based on this record, we have little confidence that Marques will receive a fair trial. We intend to monitor developments closely.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing yet again to protest the continued detention of journalist Andre Domingos Mussamo, who has been held for 86 days in Cuanza Norte province amid increasing concerns for his safety and his health.
Dear Mr. Wako: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is shocked by the eighteen-month jail sentence handed down to Johann Wandetto, a reporter for the daily The People newspaper, based in Kitale, Rift Valley Province. Wandetto was charged in the magistrate’s court on February 15 with publishing an “alarmist report” in the March 6, 1999, edition of The People. The article, titled “Militia men rob eight crack unit officers: Shock as Moi’s men surrender meekly,” claimed that elite presidential guards had been ambushed by militiamen in the remote West Pokot area of the country. Witnesses from the presidential guard denied this.
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about the abrupt closure, on February 17, of the state-owned Swazi Observer media group, which includes the daily Swazi Observer, the Weekend Observer, and the weekly Intsatseli. This decision appears to be the latest and most serious attempt to punish the Swazi Observer’s editorial staff for refusing to reveal confidential sources of information contained in recent critical reports on Swazi police activities.
New York, February 22 — Police in Monrovia yesterday arrested four journalists from Liberia’s The News and charged them with espionage, apparently in reprisal for a February 21 story that challenged government spending on helicopter repairs, Christmas cards, and souvenirs. The page one story questioned the government’s allocation of US$50,000 for helicopter repairs, and drew…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is gravely concerned about proposed amendments to the Books and Newspapers Act that would dramatically increase the mandatory publication-licensing bond. Under the amended Act, new publications would be required to post a bond of 1 million shillings (US$13,459) as security for any monetary penalty that might arise from criminal proceedings against them. This represents a hundred-fold increase over the current bond of ten thousand shillings (US$134.59).