Africa

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has urged President Abdoulaye Wade to quickly embark on a thorough overhaul of Senegal's press legislation after El Malick Seck, the editor of the Dakar-based daily 24 Heures Chrono, was sentenced to three years in prison on September 12 for an article claiming that the president was involved in money laundering. "This sentence reflects all the unfairness and...

A weekend newspaper cartoon depicting the head of South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC), Jacob Zuma, unbuckling his trousers allegedly to rape justice has sparked the ire of the party and its allies -- the South African Communist Party and the ANC Youth League, according news reports. According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), the Sunday Times cartoon showed Zuma, who is fighting to...

The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) has condemned the August 23 abduction of Canadian female journalist Amanda Lindhout and Australian photojournalist Nigel Brennan at KM13, a western suburb of Mogadishu between Afgoye district and the capital city. These two journalists arrived in Mogadishu on August 20. Lindhout, who is a Baghdad-based journalist, is freelancing for French TV...

Authorities in Niger summarily suspended a private broadcaster for a month citing unspecified regulatory violations, according to local journalists and news reports. The station has provided sympathetic coverage of the country's former prime minister, now jailed on corruption charges, according to several sources. In a ruling obtained by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)...

A government vehicle was used to ransack the offices of two Senegalese independent newspapers on Sunday, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has eported. The attacks came just three days after a top official threatened unspecified retaliation against the papers over critical stories. A dozen unidentified men stormed the offices of the daily 24 Heures Chrono at about 8:30 p.m...

A member of the editorial board of the Lagos-based private daily newspaper Thisday was shot dead on Sunday in Dopemu, a suburb of Lagos, by yet-to-be identified gunmen, Media Rights Agenda (MRA) has reported. According to the Nigerian Police, while driving home Paul Abayomi Ogundeji was ambushed by armed robbers who had earlier stolen another car. The police allege that the bandits ordered him to...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned the sentence of four years in prison or a fine of 250,000 dalasis (approx. 8,000 euros), which a Banjul court passed on August 18 on Fatou Jaw Manneh, a contributor to the AllGambian.net website, after convicting her of "sedition" for criticising President Yahya Jammeh in a 2005 article. "This verdict was not the outcome of due process, it was the...

Fatou Jaw Manneh, a US-based Gambian journalist, faces a possible prison sentence if found guilty of sedition charges following an interview highly critical of President Yahya Jammeh and his administration, which she granted to the media in 2004. The Kanifing Magistrate court trying her has fixed August 18 as the day it will give its ruling on the case. Manneh has been charged on three counts of...

The Labour Court has ordered the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) to reinstate immediately, without loss of salary or benefits, six journalists who were suspended in June 2008, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has reported. The six - Lawrence Maphosa (television production manager), Patrice Makova (news editor), Sibonginkosi Mlilo (executive producer, Nhau/Indaba), Monica...

Zimbabwean freelance photojournalist Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi has decided to flee to South Africa with his family after being assaulted by the police and having his car confiscated, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has reported. Before leaving the country, Mukwazhi told MISA-Zimbabwe that the police accused him of possessing an "improperly registered vehicle" and of having used the...