Africa

Five journalists were wounded while covering violent clashes between security personnel and protesters outside the capital, Kampala, on Wednesday, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. Scores of protestors and mourners came to Kasubi, a Kampala suburb, after a fire of unknown origin destroyed the historically significant royal tombs of the Buganda kingdom on Tuesday. Mukiibi...

Ethiopia is preparing to jam the Amharic-language broadcasts of the US government-funded Voice of America (VOA), Prime Minister Meles Zenawi declared Thursday in a press briefing with international media correspondents based in the capital, Addis Ababa. The prime minister accused VOA’s Amharic service of “engaging in destabilising propaganda,” comparing it to Radio Télévision Libre des Mille...

An angry crowd of mourners attending a mass funeral in Dogo Nahawa, central Nigeria, assaulted state radio reporter Murtala Sani on Monday, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Sani, a reporter for the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, was assigned to cover the funeral of more than 40 people killed during a bloody March 7 attack on four villages in central Nigeria. Sani and...

The Ethiopian Supreme Court reinstated fines on Monday against four newspaper publishing companies over their coverage of the disputed 2005 national election, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Judge Dagne Melaku, presiding over a panel of three-judge panel, upheld fines initially imposed in July 2007 against the Fasil, Serkalem, Sisay, and Zekarias publishing houses for...

Voice of America (VOA) reported Thursday that its transmissions to Ethiopia were being electronically jammed, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The Ethiopian government has denied responsibility. VOA cited “international shortwave radio monitors” and complaints from listeners in Ethiopia since February 22 about static on the US government-funded station’s daily, hour-long...

Two sports journalists, one South African and one Nigerian, were seized by unidentified gunmen in military uniforms in Nigeria on Monday, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The gunmen stopped a bus carrying 21 crew members of M-Net’s SuperSport channel, a South African private satellite television station, and took the three journalists hostage, local journalists told New...

A Zimbabwean freelance journalist was arrested Monday for the third time this year—this time for taking footage of prisoners outside a courthouse in the capital, Harare, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said quoting local journalists. Officers of Zimbabwe’s Prison Service arrested Andrison Shadreck Manyere, an award-winning photojournalist and videographer, after he filmed the...

Hanevy Ould Dehah, the editor of the website Taqadoumy, was finally freed Friday along with around 100 ordinary offenders under a presidential pardon issued in honour of Mawlid (the Prophet Mohammed’s birthday), according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Dehah’s lawyer, Brahim Ould Ebety, said his client had become an embarrassment for the government. He thanked all those who fought for Dehah’s...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) and the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) have expressed grave concern over the fate of Ali Yusuf Adan, a journalist who was arrested on February 21 in an area controlled by the Islamist militia Al-Shabaab. “Al-Shabaab, which we have already classified as a ‘Predator of Press Freedom,’ has added yet another misdeed to the long list of violations of free...

Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) authorities banned international French broadcaster France 24 on Monday on bogus allegations of unprofessionalism over coverage of political unrest in the West African nation, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. Speaking to Reuters on Wednesday, Frank Anderson Kouassi, the president of Ivory Coast’s National Broadcasting Council (known by its French...