darfur

Sudan's execution this week of nine men found guilty of involvement in the 2006 assassination of editor Mohammed Taha Mohammed Ahmed, left, is seen by many there as an outrageous miscarriage of justice, spurred by a thirst on the part of President Omar al-Bashir's regime for settling scores with the rebellious region of Darfur.

New York, October 14, 2008--The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about a criminal lawsuit that has been filed against the editor of The Citizen newspaper in Southern Sudan and calls on authorities to drop the case immediately.

About a week ago I mentioned a South China Morning Post article, "Screws tighten on mainland journalists" that outlined a 21-point memo that had come down from the Central Propaganda Department in July, giving guidelines for China's media coverage during the Olympics. These sorts of directives are typically disseminated across the country, to editors at every newspaper and broadcaster by the Central Propaganda Department. This list is a broad one, but during breaking stories very specific directives can come down daily, even hourly when necessary. For an example of what they look like, here's a selection from our pre-Olympics report, Falling Short. 

Basketball star Yao Ming carried the Olympic torch through Tiananmen Square today in the triumphant final leg of a relay fraught with protest. His long-legged saunter under the gaze of Mao's portrait captured headlines in today's Web news outlets, along with speculation about who will light the torch at the opening ceremony of the Games on Friday.

Also in the news was the start of Olympic competition in Tianjin, which brought an auspicious win. The Chinese women's soccer team beat Sweden 2-1.

New York, May 29, 2008—CPJ is deeply troubled by the death of award-winning photojournalist Trent Keegan, whose body was found on Wednesday in a ditch in Nairobi, Kenya.

Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe told Agence France-Presse that Keegan was found with head injuries in a drainage trench along a central highway. Police have opened an inquest, he said.

“This is a devastating loss for those who knew Trent Keegan, a photographer who worked to document people in need of a voice around the world,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Tom Rhodes. “The Kenyan police must act decisively to bring whoever killed Keegan to justice. Time is of the essence here, as it is in all murder investigations.”

Despite free speech protections built into Sudan’s 2005 interim constitution, authorities operated as if a state of emergency were still in force. Newspaper suspensions, criminal charges, and detentions were a routine part of working as a journalist in Sudan. When trying to cover one of the world’s biggest stories—the genocide in Darfur—reporters faced high barriers.

New York, September 11, 2007— Top officials accused Rwanda’s independent press on Sunday of undermining the government and threatened to force journalists to reveal their sources, according to local journalists.

During a four-hour state television broadcast in the capital, Kigali, featuring a panel of government ministers and representatives from the security forces, Interior Minister Sheikh Musa Fazil Harerimana said the government would hold reporters responsible for using leaked documents, according to the state Rwandan News Agency. “If a journalist writes a story quoting a letter smuggled to him, he is equally liable to punishment,” the pro-government daily New Times quoted Harerimana as saying. “He has to tell us who gave him the letter before his case is dropped.”  

New York, May 30, 2007--Blanket censorship imposed last November on private newspapers and radio stations was lifted this week after a six-month state of emergency, imposed in response to deadly unrest in eastern Chad, expired on Saturday, according to officials and local journalists.

Three of the leading private newspapers in the capital N'Djamena, including weeklies Notre Temps, Le Temps and L'Observateur, have appeared this week without prior review by government censors, local journalists told CPJ. In the remote southern town of Moissala, private Radio Brakos resumed broadcasting its daily news program on Tuesday after a hiatus of more than five months, Director Tchanguis Vatankah told CPJ. The station had voluntarily suspended news programs to protest pre-broadcast restrictions on coverage of the conflict in eastern Chad, he said.