Africa

Zakari Alzouma, the editor the independent weekly Opinions, was released Tuesday, but given a three-month suspended prison sentence for supposedly libelling interior minister Albadé Abouba, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Alzouma was arrested on October 30 in response to a complaint by the interior minister about an article reporting that he “took advantage” of Prime Minister Seini...

A Somalian freelance journalist has been arrested for reportedly filming two bombings last month, the Mogadishu-based National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) has reported. Hadis Mohammed Hadis was arrested on November 3 at Igal International Airport in Hargeisa city by officers from Somaliland's Criminal Investigations Department (CID). According to local journalists, the arrest came after...

A Belgian journalist who was held captive for three days by Mai-Mai militiamen in Congo has been free, the German newspaper he works for said on Friday. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said on its website that the journalist, Thomas Scheen, and two Congolese co-workers who were seized in east Congo earlier this week were now under the care of United Nations peacekeepers and doing well. Some details...

A Belgian reporter has been abducted by pro-government Mai-Mai rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) reported Thursday. RSF has called on the Mai-Mai militiamen holding Belgian journalist Thomas Scheen, together with his interpreter and his driver, in the Rutshuru region of the eastern province of Nord-Kivu to release them at once. Scheen is a correspondent...

A suicide bomb attack on October 29 outside the Ethiopian consulate in Hargeisa, Somaliland, injured three journalists who were walking in front of the consular premises, according to delayed reports. The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) said in a statement that journalist Mohamed Harun Ahmed of the Somaliland Space Channel, was severely injured as both of his legs were broken by the...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has called for the release of Zakari Alzouma, the editor the independent weekly Opinions, who has been detained since October 30 in Niamey as a result of a libel complaint by the interior minister and whose case will not be heard for another week. “Niger’s legislation on press offences comes in handy for a government that does not want to give up its bad habits,”...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) on Tuesday condemned Nigeria's arrest of online journalist Emmanuel Emeka Asiwe, a US national, at the Muritala Muhammed international airport on his arrival from the United States on October 28 to visit his sick mother and attend to family matters. He is currently being held at the headquarters of the internal intelligence service, the State Security Service (SSS)...

Sudanese journalists have launched a mass hunger strike and three independent newspapers stopped work for three days in the country's biggest organised media protest against censorship. Over 150 journalists began a 24-hour hungerstrike and the Ajras al-Hurriya, Al-Maidan and Rayal al-Shab newspapers halted production, saying they could no longer accept government restrictions over editorial...

Leading Ethiopian journalist Amare Aregawi was assaulted brutally Friday last in capital Addis Ababa, an attack in which he suffered serious head injuries, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Aregawi edits the Reporter, a big-circulation newspaper published in Amharic and English-language versions. “The Ethiopian police must investigate this attack thoroughly in order to identify both...

An Ethiopian Federal High Court judge has convicted an editor on criminal charges of "inciting the public through false rumors" over a reporting mistake, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Editor-in-Chief Tsion Girima of the private weekly Enbilta is being held in Kality prison, outside the capital, Addis Ababa, pending sentencing on Tuesday. Charged under article 486 of the...