Africa

The Zimbabwean government had asked officials to spy on the emails of editors employed by the state-owned Zimpapers group from August 3-15 this year to gauge their loyal to President Robert Mugabe, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. “As a result of this illegal decision, editor Bhekinkosi Ncube of the magazine Umthunywa has been suspended for nearly two months and could lose his job...

Jonathan Elendu, publisher of online newspaper Elendu Reports (elendureports.com), has been detained in Nigeria since October 17, when he was arrested by the State Security Service (SSS) on arrival at Nnamdi Azikiwe international airport, in the capital Abuja, on a flight from the United States, where he lives. Denying that Elendu had been arrested, SSS spokesman Kenechuks Onyegogu said he had...

Nigerian journalist Eiphraim Audu was shot dead by six unknown gunmen near his home on Wednesday in Lafia, central Nigeria, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ0 has reported quoting local journalists and the Nigerian Union of Journalists. Audu was a senior radio journalist with the Nasarawa State Broadcasting Service and the chairman of the credential committee of the forthcoming Nigeria...

Dominique Makeli, a former reporter with state-owned Radio Rwanda who had held since 1994 on a vague, genocide-related charge, has been released, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Makeli’s release on October 13 was a result of his acquittal by a gacaca (popular tribunal) in the Kigali district of Nyarugenge on October 5. Detained since September 18, 1994, he had been transferred from...

Tanzania has imposed a three-month ban on radical tabloid Mwanahalisi for allegedly publishing seditious articles. "The newspaper is fond of publishing articles that ridicule senior government leaders including president Jakaya Kikwete and the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM)," information minister George Mkuchika told reporters in Dar es Salam on Monday. Mwanahalisi editor has Saed Kubenea denied...

A Niamey appeals court has freed Radio France International (RFI) journalist Moussa Kaka after he had spent more than a year in jail accused of collaborating with Tuareg-led rebels. The court Tuesday ordered Kaka's release and downgraded the charges against him. He was arrested in September last year charged with colluding with rebels who have been waging a guerrilla war in Niger's uranium...

A journalist has been arrested in Somaliland following a complaint by the Somali Red Crescent over a news report on SRC's food distribution that the journalist published on the Internet. In The journalist, Abdiqani Ismail Goh of Radio Las Anod, had cited residents protesting how the food was distributed. The arrest of the journalist on September 17 was ordered by head of Somaliland police division...

Nigeria's National Broadcasting Commission restored Friday the broadcasting licence of Channels Television, two days after it was revoked for mistakenly reporting a fabricated report that the president may resign due to his health. NBC said the station apologised and accepted responsibility for the false report, according to Reuters. NBC director-general Yomi Bolarinwa said the commission was...

The Al-Jazeera television network has broadcast a film clip of kidnapped Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout and an Australian colleague, says a Canadian Press (CA) report). Lindhout, a freelance television and print reporter, and photographer Nigel Brennan, were abducted almost a month ago while on assignment in Somalia. The Al-Jazeera video shows Lindhout wearing an Arab robe and surrounded by...

The Nigerian government should immediately lift its suspension of Channels TV and release four staff members being held by State Security Services, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. Security agents closed the Lagos and Abuja offices of Channels TV on Tuesday after the station mistakenly aired a fabricated report that President Umaru Yar’Adua might step down for health reasons...