Africa

A total of 23 journalists remained jailed in connection with their work in Sub-Saharan Africa, two-thirds held without charge, according to the annual report released of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Thirteen journalists were held in Eritrea, which was the fourth jailer of journalists worldwide behind China, Cuba and Burma. The survey found more Internet journalists jailed worldwide

Kinshasa's N'Djili court has handed down 10 and nine-month sentences, respectively, to Nsimba Embete Ponte, editor of the Kinshasa-based, independent bi-weekly Interprète, and his assistant, Davin Tondo Nzovuanga, according to Kinshasa-based Journaliste en Danger (JED). The court's decision of November 27 was made public a week later. The two men were arrested by state security agents in March and...

The killer of journalist Carlos Cardoso has been re-arrested, 36 hours after he made his third escape from Maputo’s high security prison, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Anibal Antonio dos Santos Junior, “Anibalzinho” is serving a 30-year-sentence for the November 2000 murder of the investigative journalist, who was the editor of the daily Metical. Police arrested the fugitive Monday...

The man behind the 2000 murder of a prominent Mozambican investigative journalist escaped for the third time from custody on Sunday with the help of his prison guards, Reuters has reported quoting Interior Minister Jose Pacheco. Anibal dos Santos was serving a 30-year prison sentence for his involvement in the gangland shooting of Carlos Cardoso, who was slain while probing a $14 million...

Prominent Zimbabwean journalist and human rights activist Jestina Mukoko was abducted at dawn on Wednesday from her home near capital Harare. The journalist, a former broadcaster at the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) then privately-owned Voice of the People (VOP), was snatched from her home in Norton, 40 kilometres from the capital, by 15 men in plain clothes, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human...

Abdel Fettah Ould Abeidna, the editor of the privately-owned Arabic-language weekly Al-Aqsa, has been imprisoned in Mauritanian capital Nouakchott on a criminal libel charge. Abeidna was immediately jailed Tuesday on his arrival from Dubai, from where he was extradited. “Abeidna’s imprisonment is disproportionate and counter-productive, and confirms the urgent need for a reform of Mauritania’s...

A new law that, if passed, will allow the Kenyan government to determine the content, style, manner and schedule of broadcasting, has drawn fierce resistance from the media industry. The Kenya Communications Amendment Bill 2008, which is now in its final stages of the legislative process in Kenya's Parliament, proposes to set up a communications commission appointed by the government to issue

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has welcomed the action of a British coroner investigating the killing of a journalist in Somalia who called on BBC to ensure journalists are never put under pressure to go on dangerous missions. Coroner Dr Peter Dean said he would be writing to BBC to stress that managers must recognise staff had an overriding right to turn down dangerous jobs...

A regional governor in Somalia's breakway Puntland region said Sunday they had made contact with the abductors of four journalists, including a Briton and a Spaniard, Agence France-Presse (AFP) has reported. Bossaso Governor Musa Gueleh Yusuf said they were "trying to have them released as soon as possible." He said, "The kidnappers are asking for a ransom, but we refuse negotiations. We just want...

Serious concerned have been raised about the constricting environment the government of Swaziland is imposing on freedom of expression. Under a Suppression of Terrorism Act that has been passed by the Parliament in May 2008, Swazi journalists, political activists and human rights defenders have apparently become persona non-grata, battered and/or arrested. The Swaziland Act is the latest in a