Eddy Abasiko Mango, a journalist with the Kisangani-based station of state-owned Radio Télévision Nationale Congolaise (RTNC), was suspended on May 23 for three months by Bwande Bwanapuwa, the station's provincial manager, for hosting a programme where guests criticised the provincial governor, Journaliste en danger (JED) has reported. In his May 21 political programme called "Loba Toyoka" (Speak...
The police in Esigodini in the province of Matabeleland in southern Zimbabwe have arrested three media workers reportedly employed by Sky News, a UK-based cable and satellite channel, which is among the foreign news organisations banned from reporting in Zimbabwe. The journalists were arrested on May 23. They were still in police custody five days later following an application on May 28 for...
Radio Television Mwangaza (RTM), a privately-owned station broadcasting in Lubumbashi, capital of Katanga province (southeastern DR Congo), has been the target of a slander campaign organised by Honoré Kazadi Lukonde, alias Ngube Ngube, a reported supporter of Katanga Governor Moise Katumbi Chapwe, Journaliste en danger (JED) has reported. During a May 24 press conference held at the Makutano...
Yet another Senegalese journalist has been sentenced on criminal defamation charges within a week. This journalist, according to Afrol News, was found guilty of "publishing false news." Papa Moussa Guèye, director of the private daily L'Exclusif, was handed a six-month suspended prison term by a court in the capital Dakar. His troubles began after his paper published an article on President...
Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned the continuing use of violence against the independent press after 60,000 copies of The Zimbabwean On Sunday newspaper were intercepted and torched on the evening of May 24, and a freelance reporter was attacked and beaten in the eastern city of Mutare. "These attacks must not remain unpunished", the press freedom organisation said. "Since the March 29...
Guinea's media regulator, the National Communication Council (CNC), has suspended La Croisade, a privately-owned Conakry-based newspaper, for two months for publishing an alleged falsehood. The newspaper, suspended on May 19, will be out of circulation until July 19, the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has reported. In addition, the newspaper's managing editor, Fadjimba Sayon Keita, has...
The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) has expressed concern over the ongoing harassment and intimidation of journalists and media executives in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland in north-eastern Somalia. On May 25, the governor of Eyn region in Puntland ordered the arrest of journalist Ali Osman of the Bossasso-based Somali Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) in Buhodle District. The...
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reiterated a call to Senegalese authorities to end a pattern of criminal defamation prosecutions against the press after a court in the capital, Dakar, sentenced a journalist on Tuesday to a suspended prison term on a charge of "publishing false news," according to news reports and his lawyer. Papa Moussa Guèye, director of the private daily L...
Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned the continuing use of violence against the independent press after 60,000 copies of the Zimbabwean On Sunday newspaper were intercepted and torched on the evening of May 24 and a freelance reporter was attacked and beaten in the eastern city of Mutare. “These attacks must not remain unpunished,” Paris-based RSF said. “Since the March 29 general...
Three men accused of killing Congolese journalist Serge Maheshe in 2007 were convicted and sentenced to death, while two others were acquitted in a retrial that ended Wednesday. The trial failed to establish a clear motive for the crime, according to news reports and local journalists. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) expressed concern that key aspects of the case remain...
