Africa

On the eve of the first anniversary of Radio Okapi journalist Didace Namujimbo’s murder in Bukavu, the capital of the eastern province of Sud-Kivu, Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) and Journalist in Danger (JED) have condemned the lack of action on the part of the military officers in charge of the investigation. Namujimbo was killed by a single shot to the head as he was returning home at around 9...

Two Somali correspondents for international media outlets were injured in separate shootings, one in the northeast semi-autonomous region of Puntland, and the other in the capital, Mogadishu, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported quoting local journalists and news reports. In the Puntland city of Galkayo, northeast of Mogadishu, a police officer fired on the car of...

A Lusaka court Monday acquitted the Post editor Chansa Kabwela of a charge of “distributing obscene material” for sending the vice-president photos of a woman giving birth in a hospital car park during a strike by hospital staff, Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Judge Charles Kafunda dismissed the case on the grounds that there was no evidence that the photos would corrupt...

Jean Bosco Gasasira, the editor of the fortnightly Umuvugizi, has been convicted on charges of defamation and invasion of privacy but has been acquitted on the more serious charge of insult and abuse, on which he had been facing a possible sentence of more than two years in prison. In its verdict and sentencing issued on November 13, the Kigali court also refrained from ordering Umuvugizi’s...

Six private newspapers in Gabon have been suspended by the government-controlled media-monitoring body, the National Communications Council. The council announced the suspensions, which range from one to three months, on Tuesday evening on state-run TV, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. The papers have been suspended for “violating the ethics of journalism”...

Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) Tuesday voiced outrage at a prosecution call to permanently shut down the independent bi-monthly Umuvugizi and to sentence its editor, Jean Bosco Gasasira, to a 26-month jail sentence for libel. The Paris-based press freedom organisation urged the judge who is due to rule in the case on November 13 not to follow the recommendation made on October 26 by the judge...

Abdoulaye Tiémogo, editor of the independent Nigerien weekly Le Canard déchaîné, has been released from prison after his sentence was reduced on appeal, Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The journalist, who is in poor health, had been held in custody since August 1. He had been found guilty of “discrediting a judicial decision”. Tiémogo told RSF after his release on October...

Zimbabwean intelligence agents recently mistreated two journalists working for Arab satellite TV station al-Jazeera, Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Cameraman Austin Gundani was physically assaulted and then held for three hours, with his reporter colleague Haru Mutasa, at the presidency where they had arrived on October 20 to cover a cabinet meeting from which Prime...

There has been a disturbing escalation in the Guinean military’s clampdown, consisting of denying entry to French TV crews and reporters on their arrival at Conakry international airport, Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. It coincides with continuing serious threats to local reporters and Sundays arrival of United Nations assistant secretary-general Haile Menkerios in...

Chadian authorities summarily expelled a Cameroonian-born journalist from the country on Wednesday, a day after he wrote an op-ed in response to a government official’s suggestion that the Nobel Peace Prize should have been awarded to Chad President Idriss Deby, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Chadian security service agents took Innocent Ebodé, who arrived...