Africa

Press freedom groups have welcomed the release of a freelance Somali photojournalist and two Somali drivers on Thursday but remain concerned over the fate of two foreign freelance reporters who have been held since their abduction on August 23, 2008, by unknown gunmen. Photojournalist Abdifatah Elmi was working as a fixer and translator for Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout and Australian...

Gaston Asseko, the technical director of radio Sainte-Marie, and three leading civil society members held in the same case were released provisionally on January 12, as was a police officer who was arrested with them. Tendance Gabon editor Léon Dieudonné Kougou, who was arrested with Asseko on December 30, was released provisionally on January 7, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported....

The life and livelihood of Somali journalists were in danger, and attacks to kill, hurt, harass and silence journalists were persistent throughout 2008. The 2008 annual report of the the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) reveals virulent attacks on journalists including unspeakable cases of killings, arrests, injuries, ill-treatments, abduction and death threats as well as serious

A three-year prison sentence has been handed down to Lewis Medjo, managing editor of Cameroonian weekly La Détente libre, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. He has been in Douala central prison in the west of the country since September 22, 2008. Medjo was found guilty on January 7 of “spreading false news” and sentenced by the Douala court to three years in prison and a fine of two...

Nsimba Embete Ponte, the editor of biweekly L’Interprète was released on January 7 on completing a 10-month prison sentence for “insulting” DRC President Joseph Kabila by referring to rumours about his health in a series of articles, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Arrested on March 7, 2008 in Kinshasa by members of the National Intelligence Agency (ANR), Ponte was held incommunicado...

Zimbabwean photojournalist Anderson Shadreck Manyere, who was arrested on December 24, was remanded in custody on January 9 by a court in Harare despite allegations that he was tortured while in police detention, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported quoting local journalists. Manyere is expected to return to court on January 23. Defence lawyer Alec Muchadehama had asked...

Mfomfo Nkambule, a columnist with the Times of Swaziland newspaper was censored by state police who interrogated him on January 5 over his weekly articles which are often critical of the king and his leadership, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has reported. Nkambule, an ex-cabinet minister and member of parliament but now chairperson of a political party known as Inhlava, was...

Safety remains the single greatest concern for media professionals in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), despite the fact that statistically speaking attacks against the press and journalists are down. The decline was more likely attributable to censorship and self-editing on the part of journalists, rather than any improvement to the country's press laws. The findings are from Journalist en

Two journalists and three leading civil society members have been detained at the Libreville headquarters of the criminal investigation police of Gabon for the past week—longer than the legal period for police custody—without any explanation being given. Other journalists have been questioned in connection with the case in the past few days, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “The...

The Committee to Protect Journalists has expressed concern at the ongoing police persecution of two Ugandan journalists. The police's Media Offences Department has repeatedly interrogated the two over a story critical of the government's handling of an international security operation against the rebel Lord's Resistance Army last month, according to a local lawyer and journalists. The two...