JULY 14, 2006 Posted: August 16, 2006 Orlovskye Novosti HARASSED Police searched the offices of the independent weekly newspaper Orlovskiye Novosti in the western Russian city of Oryol. Five police officers, accompanied by two officials from the local Office of Taxation, stated that the newspaper had failed to pay taxes. “The chief editor, Andrei Kanatnikov,…
July 13, 2006 Abdikarim Omar Moallim, Radio Banadir HARASSED, CENSORED Moallim, a correspondent in Jowhar for private station Radio Banadir, was briefly detained by the Islamist-controlled administration of the region and banned from continuing to work for the station, according to the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ). Moallim told NUSOJ that the ban stemmed…
July 13, 2006 Posted: August 16, 2006 GAGIK SHAMSHIAN, freelance ATTACKED, HARASSED Gagik Shamshian, a freelancer writing for the opposition weekly Chorrord Ishkhanutyun and the independent daily Aravot, was assaulted in the southern Yerevan suburb of Nubarashen by relatives and friends of the district’s mayor, Mher Hovannisian, local press reported. The assailants threatened Shamshian, repeatedly…
July 12, 2006 Posted July 18, 2006 Olivier Komfie Mabwava, Digital Congo FM IMPRISONED Mabwava, a correspondent for the Kinshasa-based radio station Digital Congo FM in the western province of Bandundu, was arrested and held for two days by the provincial public prosecutor. According to the Kinshasa-based press freedom organization Journaliste en Danger (JED), Mabwava…
May 2006 Posted: July 10, 2006 Peter William Mandio, Le Front Michel Michaut Moussala, Aurore Plus Socrate Dipanda, Le Constat LEGAL ACTION The directors of three private newspapers were convicted of defaming Finance Minister Polycarpe Abah Abah in a series of critical articles and sentenced to prison in May 2006, according to the state-owned daily…
JULY 10, 2006 Last Alert: June 23, 2006 Kazadi Kwambi Kasumpata, Lubilanji Expansion IMPRISONED, LEGAL ACTION Kasumpata, a journalist working for the small private weekly Lubilanji Expansion in the capital, Kinshasa, was provisionally released on July 5 after spending more than two months in prison on defamation charges. He was freed on orders from the…
UPDATE July 10, 2006 Original Protest Letter: December 23, 2003 L’Autre Journal CENSORED Gabon’s government-controlled media regulatory body, the National Council on Communications (CNC), ruled on June 22 to re-authorize the private bimonthly L’Autre Journal to publish, according to the state-owned daily L’Union. The decision came two and a half years after the paper was…
UPDATE July 10, 2006 Original Case: March 7, 2005 SW Radio Africa CENSORED SW Radio Africa, a private broadcaster based in the United Kingdom and founded by exiled Zimbabwean journalists, reported June 26, 2006 that its medium-wave broadcasts into Zimbabwe were jammed in the capital, Harare.
JULY 6, 2006 Posted: July 10, 2006 Lee Kin Mun, Today HARRASSED The state-owned free tabloid Today cancelled the column of Lee Kin Mun, who writes under the name of Mr. Brown. Lee is also a well-known blogger in Singapore. Lee’s June 30 satirical newspaper column, “Singaporeans are fed up with progress,” criticized the government…