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…
July 2, 2006 Posted July 5, 2006 DWRC-FM radio station attacked Armed men set fire to the community radio station DWRC FM Radyo Cagayano, in Baggao town in Cagayan province, more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) north of Manila, according to local news reports and the Philippines Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility. The station…
June 30, 2006 Original Alert: June 8, 2006 James Tumusiime, Weekly Observer Ssemujju Ibrahim Nganda, Weekly Observer LEGAL ACTION The trial of two journalists from the independent Weekly Observer newspaper on charges of “promoting sectarianism” was suspended June 22 pending a ruling on the constitutionality of the law under which they were charged, according to…
JUNE 30, 2006 Posted: July 17, 2006 Nicolás Revello, Tiempo Sur ATTACKED Revello, a photographer for the Río Gallegos-based daily Tiempo Sur in the southern province of Santa Cruz, was attacked by local security forces while covering the arrest of soccer fans who were protesting after the national team was disqualified from the 2006 World…