Africa

Authorities in Malawi should immediately release three journalists arrested today in a police raid on an opposition radio station, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has demanded. The country is holding general elections between Wednesday and Thursday. The 4 a.m. raid targetted Joy Radio, a station owned by former president and opposition leader Bakili Muluzi, in the commercial city of...

Sitta Turay, editor-in-chief of the Freetown-based bi-weekly newspaper New People, was violently attacked on May 14 by two functionaries of the ruling All People's Congress Party (APC) for allegedly defaming President Ernest Bai Koroma, the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has reported. An MFWA correspondent said that two men stormed Sitta Turay's office and accused him of using his...

A murder attempt was recently made against Mohamed Ould Zeine, editor of the independent Arab-language daily in Mauritania El Wattan and star presenter on Radio Mauritania, Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The journalist was left for dead after being battered and slashed by two men wielding baseball bats and knives on the evening of May 12. He suffered a very serious...

The Zimbabwe police conducted a raid on the Harare headquarters of the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper on May 9 and the arrests of its director, editor and news editor two days later, Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The three journalists were freed on bail after being held for 24 hours. “Zimbabwean journalists continue to be the victims of police brutality and judicial...

Police in Zimbabwe should immediately release Alec Muchadehama, a prominent human rights lawyer targetted for his work on behalf of journalist Anderson Shadreck Manyere and others, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday. Two agents of the Zimbabwe police's Law and Order section arrested Alec Muchadehama at the Rotten Row Magistrates Courts in Harare Thursday morning, according to a...

A foreign travel ban has been placed on William Tonet, the editor of the independent Luanda-based biweekly Folha 8 (F8), whose passport was seized when he tried to cross by land into Namibia on May 9, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Tonet has been harassed by the authorities ever since the newspaper’s creation in 1995. “The persecution of Tonet because of the stories he publishes is...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the threats and intimidations against journalists in Somalia after the head of an Islamic militia group in Somalia warned journalists against reports which are critical of the movement. “We condemn this climate of terror and intimidation against journalists in Somalia,” said Gabriel Baglo, Director of IFJ Africa Office. “It is against...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has written to the DRC communication and media minister Lambert Mendé condemning the government’s decision to suspend local retransmission of the French public radio station Radio France Internationale (RFI) in the northeastern city of Bunia, and voicing concern at the possibility that the measure could be extended to the rest of the country. “We easily understand...

Radio Mada sports reporter Evariste Ramanantsoavina has been retained in detention and charged with “inciting revolt against the republic’s institutions,” defamation and disseminating false information, Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. He was arrested on May 5 and forced to reveal the location from which the radio was broadcasting in defiance of a closure order. “Even if...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressed concern over the safety of journalist Tuver Wundi Muhindo following an armed attack on his home in the North Kivu capital of Goma on April 12. The incident followed the 2007 murder of Goma photojournalist Patrick Kikuku Wilingula, which is still unsolved. CPJ has urged the province, Julien Paluku Kahongya, to use his influence to ensure...