Gabon

New York, December 10, 2008--The Committee to Protect Journalists is outraged by reports that a journalist who was summoned to the Gabonese presidential office ended up in intensive care from a severe beating on December 5. The office called in journalist Habib Papy Boubendji for questioning over a November 27 column that raised pointed questions about the role of President Omar Bongo's daughter, a presidential aide, in an alleged corruption scandal, the journalist told CPJ today.

Mboula, a cameraman with private broadcaster Télé Africa was assaulted by police officers while filming an anti-government march against price hikes in the capital Libreville, according to news reports and local journalists.

MARCH 14, 2008
Posted April 22, 2008

Croissance Saine Environnement
CENSORED

Gabon’s state-run National Communications Council indefinitely suspended Croissance Saine Environnement, a monthly newspaper published by a local environmental advocacy group of the same name, in connection with a series of stories critical of a government official, according to news reports and local journalists.

Newspaper suspended over report on president’s wealth

New York, March 12, 2008—Gabonese authorities banned on Tuesday a private newspaper for republishing a report on President Omar Bongo’s private wealth in France, according to local news reports. The original story appeared in the French daily Le Monde at the end of January.

Gabon’s state-run National Communications Council accused Tendance Gabon,a private semimonthly, of spreading “a campaign of denigration” against Bongo after questioning Director Edwige Anyouzoa during a nine-hour hearing, according to local journalists. Anyouzoa told CPJ she was summoned to the council shortly after Monday’s edition hit the newsstands with Le Monde’s story, which she headlined “Omar Bongo busted by French investigators.” The decision to ban the paper for three months was final and could not be appealed under Gabon’s laws, legal expert Francis Nkéa told CPJ.