Africa

New York, November 29, 1999 –Rafael Marques, a freelance journalist and Angola representative of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, was released on bail on November 25, after spending 40 days in prison. His trial is scheduled to begin on December 15. Marques had been in police custody since October 16. Angolan police informally…

War correspondents today must often choose between self-censorship and death.

New York, November 3, 1999 — Jerry Needam, acting editor of the bimonthly Ogoni Star newspaper in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, was arraigned and released on bail yesterday. Needam had been held since October 11 in connection with the publication of a police operational order that detailed a planned clampdown on ethnic Ijaw…

Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is gravely concerned by the continued deterioration of the press freedom situation in Cote d’Ivoire. While we welcome the release from prison today of Le Populaire publisher Raphael Lakpe, threats and attacks against opposition media have intensified alarmingly in recent weeks. In a September 10 letter to Your Excellency, CPJ expressed its deep concern that the prolonged detention of Lakpe and Le Populaire editor Jean Khalil Sylla (who remains in prison) would negatively affect press freedom in Cote d’Ivoire.

Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is dismayed to learn that twelve journalists with the independent daily newspaperThe Post have been summoned to appear in the High Court in Lusaka on November 1 on charges of espionage.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned by the arrest and continued detention of Rafael Marques, a freelance journalist who also represents the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa in Angola.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is once again writing to protest the continued detention of journalist Joseph Mbakulu Pambu Diana, who has now spent one year in prison without trial.

Islamabad, October 6, 1999 – After a two-hour hearing, the Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan dismissed a petition that sought to exclude embattled editor Najam Sethi from political life by having him declared non-Muslim. The petition was filed on June 24 by legislator Syed Zafar Ali Shah, a member of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s ruling…

Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply dismayed that journalists Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto of the Harare-based Sunday Standardnewspaper are to face trial in Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court on October 4, despite widespread international outrage over their case.

Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned over the comments made by the Minister of Social Communication, Hendrik Vaal Neto, in an interview carried on state radio on June 1.