Attacks & developments throughout the region
Committee to Protect Journalists
Comoros
Attacks on the Press
| Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Uganda
New York, December 17, 2007—The manager of the former local branch of the national Comoros Islands broadcaster Radio Télévision des Comores went into hiding on December 1, fearing for his safety. Journalist Kamal Ali Yahoudha told CPJ in a phone interview that he fled from his house in Mutsamudu, the capital of the separatist island of Anjouan, an hour before a group of armed military police came to arrest him, according to his family. He was informed by a government source and had time to flee, Yahoudha
New York, August 3, 2007—Journalists in Africa’s Comoros islands say they were prevented from traveling to the separatist island of Anjouan to cover Independence Day celebrations Friday. Local reporters say travel agencies refused to sell them airline tickets.
Editor Ibrahim Ali Saïd Félix and cameraman Ismael Kassim of Djabal Télévision, a private station based on the main volcanic island of Grande Comore, were unable to board a flight to Anjouan after travel agencies refused to sell them tickets until Monday, Djabal TV director Mmadi Moindjié told CPJ. Moindjié and Félix allege that Comores Aviation and Air Service Comores, two private travel agencies that exclusively provide inter-island trips from the capital, Moroni, linked the move to government pressure in connection with Djabal TV’s coverage of Anjouan authorities.
Attacks on the Press
| Benin, Burkina Faso, Burma, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, France, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, Zambia
New York, May 9, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by attacks on radio stations in the Comoros in the run-up to May 14 federal elections in the Indian Ocean state. Unidentified assailants armed with machetes stormed two radio stations on the island of Grande Comore on May 5, forcing them off the air for 24 hours. The army shut down a radio station on the island of Mohéli more than a week ago, and it has not resumed broadcasting, local journalists told CPJ.
MARCH 25, 2006
Posted April 19, 2006
Aboubacar Mchangama, L’Archipel
IMPRISONED, LEGAL ACTION
Mchangama, director of the independent weekly L’Archipel, was detained by paramilitary police, or gendarmes, for two days in the capital, Moroni, over an article detailing discontent among army officers. He was charged with “divulging military secrets,” according to the Panapress news agency.
Posted April 19, 2006
Aboubacar Mchangama, L’Archipel
IMPRISONED, LEGAL ACTION
Mchangama, director of the independent weekly L’Archipel, was detained by paramilitary police, or gendarmes, for two days in the capital, Moroni, over an article detailing discontent among army officers. He was charged with “divulging military secrets,” according to the Panapress news agency.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply disturbed by an ongoing government ban on news programming on Radio Dzialandzé Mutsamudu (RDM), a popular, privately owned station based in Mutsamudu, capital of the semi-autonomous island of Anjouan.
JANUARY 13, 2005
Posted: February 4, 2005
Radio Dzialandzé Mutsamudu
CENSORED
Interior and Information Minister Djanffar Salim ordered the suspension of all news broadcasts on Radio Dzialandzé Mutsamudu (RDM), a popular, privately owned station based in Mutsamudu, capital of the semi-autonomous island of Anjouan.
Posted: February 4, 2005
Radio Dzialandzé Mutsamudu
CENSORED
Interior and Information Minister Djanffar Salim ordered the suspension of all news broadcasts on Radio Dzialandzé Mutsamudu (RDM), a popular, privately owned station based in Mutsamudu, capital of the semi-autonomous island of Anjouan.
Attacks on the Press
| Botswana, Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Silence reigned supreme in Eritrea, where the entire independent press was under a government ban and 11 journalists languished in jail at year's end. Clamorous, deadly power struggles raged in Zimbabwe over land and access to information, and in Burundi over ethnicity and control of state resources. South Africa, Senegal, and Benin remained relatively liberal from a press freedom perspective, while corruption and fear pervaded newsrooms in Mozambique and Togo.
Mediators from the Organization of African Unity (OAU) tried to broker a peace plan for the three-island Islamic republic starting in January, after members of the self-styled parliament of the breakaway island of Anjouan asked Colonel Said Abeid, the island's military leader, to relinquish power.
Anxious to prevent bloodletting, OAU mediators brokered a unity agreement that military rulers and politicians signed on February 17. The signatories agreed to draft a new constitution that would include the rights to free speech and freedom of the press.
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