Syrenius Cephus, the publisher of the Plain Truth daily newspaper, and Michael Makinde, the general manager of the Seamarco Printing Press, are being held in connection with a report claiming that Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s government supplied arms to dissident forces in neighbouring Guinea. “If the report that appeared in Plain Truth is baseless and defamatory, we think the...
The managing editor of a private newspaper in Cameroon has been held in police custody since Thursday, accused of insulting President Paul Biya, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported quoting local journalists and news reports. Managing Editor Jean-Bosco Talla of the weekly Germinal was picked up by police in the capital, Yaoundé, on Thursday and taken to the State...
The time that Swedish-Eritrean journalist Dawit Isaak has spent in a jail in Eritrea, without a trial and without any visits from his family or lawyers, on Thursday reached 3,000 days. “It is a disgrace that he remains in prison and it is remarkable that the Swedish government does not try harder to get him released,” said Jesper Bengtsson, president of the Swedish section of Reporters Sans...
There is a climate of fear to which Ethiopia’s independent media are currently exposed. The Addis Ababa-based weekly Addis Neger suspended publication Friday after several of its editors fled the country in the past few days because they were afraid they would be arrested. “The spectre of the 2005 crackdown on the opposition and on the independent press is resurfacing in the run-up to the May 2010...
The toll of journalists killed in Thursday'ss suicide bombing in Mogadishu’s Shamo Hotel has risen to three. According to the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), a Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) partner organisation, freelance fixer and cameraman Abdigafar Abdulkadir Hassan, aka Yaasir Mario died Thursday evening in the Medina Hospital, to which he had been taken in a critical condition...
Three journalists were among the victims of a suicide bombing at a Benadir University graduation ceremony in Mogadishu Thursday. Twenty-two people were killed at Hotel Shamo, including three government ministers, by suspected Islamic insurgents, according to the Associated Press (AP). Hassan Zubeyr, a cameraman for the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television network and Radio Shabelle reporter Mohamed...
A court in N’Djamena Saturday ordered the automatic seizure of all issues published by the privately-owned weekly La Voix, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “This is a political decision, one that is marred by irregularities,” said one of the newpaper’s lawyers, Jean-Bernard Padaré. La Voix hopes to continue publishing. The court could not legally order the newspaper’s closure so it...
The November 29 presidential election in Equatorial Guinea, in the absence of any independent media, has been witnessing one-sided coverage by the state-owned media, according to Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF). After winning the 2002 election with 97.1 per cent of the votes, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema has “promised” to win this one with more than 97 per cent again. “It is no surprise that...
Canadian freelance reporter Amanda Lindhout and Australian freelance photographer Nigel Brennan were released Wednesday in Mogadishu. Lindhout and Brennan were released at 20:40 hrs local time, according to Ahmed Diriye, MP, who spoke to the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ). The two journalists were taken to a heavily guarded Hotel Sahafi in central Mogadishu. They are due to be flown...
One of the main suspects in the November 2008 murder of Radio Okapi journalist Didace Namujimbo, Corp Sébastien Tandema, escaped from a cell in the 10th Military Region’s headquarters in the eastern city of Bukavu Monday, just five days after he was arrested, Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) and Journalist en Danger (JED) have reported. When he appeared before military prosecutors a few days after...
