DECEMBER 18, 2007 Posted January 14, 2008 Talassa CENSORED The state-run High Council on Freedom of Communication (known by its French acronym as CSLC) suspended private bimonthly Talassa for two months over a November 23 editorial critical of President Denis Sassou Nguesso, according to local journalists and news reports.The council accused the paper of “deliberate and repeated…
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists urges you as chairman of the African Union to discuss with your fellow heads of state and government at your summit in the Gambian capital, Banjul, from July 1, the need to defend press freedom on the continent.
APRIL 20, 2006Posted: May 1, 2006Fortune Bemba, ThalassaHARASSED, LEGAL ACTION Bemba, director of the private Brazzaville-based weekly Thalassa, was arrested and charged with defamation, insulting the head of state, and “propagating false news,” according to the press freedom organization Journaliste en Danger (JED), which is based in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. Those charges are not criminal…
Conditions for Congolese journalists improved slightly last year, even though the harsh 1996 Press Law remained on the books. In the main, President Denis Sassou Nguesso’s unity government found it expedient to tolerate frequently caustic press criticism. On January 13, however, authorities jailed Richard Ntsana of the opposition newspaper Le Flambeau and accused him of…
IN LATE 1999, THE MAIN PARTIES TO THE INTERMITTENT ETHNIC CIVIL WAR in this oil-rich country signed peace agreements that seemed reasonably durable at the end of 2000. Yet President Denis Sassou-Nguesso’s government, which is largely controlled by the northern Mbochi tribe, continued to repress political dissent. The Fundamental Act of 1997, which replaced a…