Africa

Lagos, Nigeria, April 19, 2013--Two Nigerian journalists and their employer have been charged with forgery in connection with their publication of a memo reported to be from President Goodluck Jonathan, according to news reports. If convicted, the journalists could face life terms.

Lagos, Nigeria, April 17, 2013--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a recent decision by the Nigerian government to ban the exhibition and distribution of a documentary film on corruption in the state's management of oil wealth, "Fuelling Poverty."

Lagos, Nigeria, April 10, 2013--Nigerian police should stop harassing the staff of the leading independent daily Leadership over a story critical of President Goodluck Jonathan, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

On Monday, police in the capital Abuja summoned four Leadership journalists for questioning over an April 3 story entitled "Outrage Trails Presidential Directive on Tinubu, APC," according to the newspaper. The story reported on public criticism of Jonathan following Leadership's publication a day earlier of a purported presidential memorandum in which Jonathan allegedly laid out plans to increase petrol prices and sabotage a merger of opposition political parties ahead of the 2015 elections by targeting their leaders' business interests.

Authorities in Ethiopia describe Eskinder Nega, a prominent columnist and government critic jailed since September 2011 on vague terrorism charges, as a dangerous individual bent on violent revolution. However, in an opinion handed down in 2012--publicized only this week by Washington, D.C.-based legal advocacy group Freedom Now--a United Nations panel of five independent experts ruled that Eskinder's imprisonment came "as a result of his peaceful exercise of the right to freedom of expression."

New York, April 5, 2013--Police in Somalia say they have been holding a woman in custody for much of this week after they say questions were raised about the veracity of reports that a journalist was fatally shot in Mogadishu on March 24.

Lagos, Nigeria, April 4, 2013--The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on authorities in Togo to investigate an apparently deliberate hit-and-run attack Wednesday on freelance photojournalist and videographer Koffi Djidonou Frédéric Attipou. 

New York, April 3, 2013--In a wave of censorship, Cameroon has indefinitely banned two TV programs for what regulators considered violent content and another three radio programs on vague charges of ethics violations, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the move, which also includes the suspension of at least seven journalists.

New York, April 2, 2013--The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes today's decision by a judge in Mali to grant bail to a journalist who was jailed for 27 days in connection with his paper's publication of a letter critical of a military leader. CPJ calls on the public prosecutor to drop the charges against Boukary Daou, an editor of the daily Le Républicain.

Daou was released from the central prison in Bamako, the capital, at around 3 p.m. after the judge granted his application for bail pending trial, Assane Koné, editor-in-chief of the paper, told CPJ. Daou told CPJ he shared a cell with about 50 other inmates. Daou has been charged with incitement to mutiny and publishing false information and faces up to three years in prison and a maximum fine of 150 million CFA francs (US$293,000) if convicted, according to local journalists. His trial is scheduled to resume on April 16.