Four representatives of the Kano State Hisbah Board, a local security agency set up to enforce its interpretation of Sharia law, on August 27, 2016, assaulted two journalists from private broadcaster Express Radio, according to news reports. The religious police were angry that Express Radio correspondent Abdullahi Isa brought two female journalists–Hauwa Musa Abdullahi, a…
Philipbert Browne, the publisher of Liberia’s Hot Pepper newspaper, was arrested at his office and jailed at the Monrovia Central Prison in the Liberian capital on October 7, 2016, for libel on the orders of a Civil Law Court over a story in his paper titled, “During Ebola Time: ‘I Lost My Virginity'” published the…
Cuban state security officers on October 11 briefly detained Elaine Díaz Rodríguez, one of Cuba’s most prominent independent journalists, along with five of her colleagues from Periodismo de Barrio (Neighborhood News) and two freelancers working with them, while the team attempted to report on storm damage caused by Hurricane Matthew in northeastern Cuba Periodismo de…
Plainclothes police officers on September 15, 2016, detained Festus Poquie, a journalist with Liberia’s New Democrat newspaper, from his office and took him to the Liberia National Police headquarters in the capital Monrovia, where he was detained and interrogated for several hours.
Ghanaian Police Inspector General John Kudalor on May 26, 2016, told reporters in the capital Accra that police were considering blocking Facebook, Twitter and all other social media during general elections scheduled to be held in December 7, according to media reports.
Officers of the Bureau of National Investigation, Ghana’s national security agency, arrested Ghanaian-Lebanese columnist and author Fadi Dabbousi on September 23, 2016, upon his arrival from Lebanon at Kotoka International Airport, according to news reports.