Bright Chibvuri, the editor of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union's bi-weekly newspaper The Worker, has been convicted of contravening section 83(1) of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), which criminalises practicing journalism without accreditation. Chibvuri is appealing to the High Court against both the conviction and the sentence. On 29 April, Chibvuri, who...
The Committee to Protect Journalists has condemned criminal defamation convictions handed to two Senegalese journalists on Tuesday last. The two were convicted for reporting on the contents of an anonymous letter critical of top security officials. A criminal court in the capital, Dakar, sentenced Director Jules Diop and Editor-in-Chief Serigne Saliou Samb of private daily newspaper L'Observateur...
Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has expressed concern over the detention of freelance journalist Al-Ghali Yahya Shegifat, who has been held incommunicado in an unknown location since May 14. Neither his family nor his lawyer has been able to contact him and the charges against him are unknown. "The way this journalist has been made to virtually disappear is illegal and outrageous," Paris-based RSF...
Authorities in Somalia’s breakaway region of Puntland freed a broadcast corporation chief held on charges that his media outlets incited political upheaval, he told AFP Saturday.Mowlid Haji Abdi was released late Friday after being detained for hours following a police raid on the premises of Somalia Broadcasting Corporation, which operates radio and television stations. "I got my freedom back...
Hackers attacked the website of Zimbabwe's state-owned Herald newspaper and shut it down for three days, the newspaper said on Monday, according to a Reuters report. The Herald is widely seen as the official mouthpiece of President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party and has been critical of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) which won the country's disputed March 29 elections...
A Reuters photographer covering the aftermath of Zimbabwe's elections has been detained for three days for allegedly using a satellite phone to transmit pictures, the global news and information company said on Thursday. Reuters called for the immediate release of Howard Burditt, a Zimbabwean national, who has been held by police in Harare since Monday. He has not been charged. "As part of its pan...
Rwanda’s independent media is facing increasing intimidation in the run-up to parliamentary elections scheduled for later this year. On Friday, three editors of private Kinyarwanda-language newspapers were suddenly expelled from the afternoon session of a World Press Freedom Day event at the Serena Hotel in the capital, Kigali, despite attending the media stakeholders’ forum since the morning as...
South Africa's public broadcaster suspended its chief executive for insubordination barely hours after he meted out the same punishment to the head of news, its board announced Wednesday, according to news reports. Dali Mpofu, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) chief executive officer, has been suspended with immediate effect, the board said in a statement, according to Agence...
Reporters sans frontières (RSF) said Wednesday it was disgusted by a murder attempt against Bisharo Mohammed Waeys, celebrated presenter on the privately-owned Eastern Television Network (ETN), on May 4, the last woman working openly as a journalist in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, north-eastern Somalia. Bisharo Mohammed Waeys, who presents a popular talk show onto which she invites...
Police in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, have detained a journalist and three support staffers of a private entertainment magazine since May 2. Local journalists say the detentions are related to a cover story about the high-profile trial of Ethiopia’s most popular pop singer, Tewodros Kassahun. Deputy Editor and owner Alemayehu Mahtemework and the three media workers from the monthly Enku...
