Harry Yansaneh

The case had all the hallmarks of a sordid thriller. There was "a rogue politician, a journalist getting killed, a staunchly incurious police, and the media in frenzy," veteran journalist Lansana Gberie wrote in the New African, describing the fatal 2005 beating of editor Harry Yansaneh in Sierra Leone. 

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New York, April 30, 2008 -- Democracies from Colombia to India and Russia to the Philippines are among the worst countries in the world at prosecuting journalists' killers according to the Impunity Index, a list of countries compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists where governments have consistently failed to solve journalists' murders.

March 17, 2008

President Ernest Bai Koroma
c/o The Embassy of Sierra Leone to the United States
1701, 19th St., NW
Washington, D.C. 20009

Via fascimile: (202) 483-1793

Dear Mr. President,

We are writing to express our grave concern about the recent arrest of an editor and a publisher under criminal libel laws, despite your pledges to decriminalize libel cases in Sierra Leone.

New York, February 7, 2006—Sierra Leone's attorney general confirmed today that he will not pursue charges of manslaughter against a member of parliament and two others accused of assaulting journalist Harry Yansaneh in May 2005. At the time, Yansaneh was acting editor of the private newspaper For Di People. A judicial inquest found that the attack contributed to Yansaneh's death from kidney failure more than two months later.

New York, November 30, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes Tuesday's release of jailed journalist Paul Kamara after an appeals court overturned his conviction and two-year sentence for seditious libel. He had served more than a year in prison for articles criticizing President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. "I am happy that I have been acquitted at long last," Kamara told CPJ in an interview today. "This is a victory for press freedom."

New York, October 4, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is outraged that journalist Paul Kamara remains in jail in Sierra Leone a year after being convicted of "seditious libel" for articles criticizing President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. Kamara was convicted on October 5, 2004, and sent to Pademba Road Prison in the capital, Freetown, to serve a two-year sentence. Local and international press freedom groups have repeatedly called for his release.

JULY 28, 2005
Posted August 31, 2005

Harry Yansaneh, For Di PeopleKILLED - UNCONFIRMED
An attack on newspaper editor Harry Yansaneh contributed to his death from kidney failure two months later, a judicial inquest found on August 26. A magistrate ordered the arrest of Member of Parliament Fatmata Hassan, three of her children, and two other men for suspected manslaughter after the weeklong inquest.

New York, August 29, 2005—An attack on newspaper editor Harry Yansaneh contributed to his death from kidney failure two months later, a judicial inquest found on Friday. A magistrate ordered the arrest of Member of Parliament Fatmata Hassan, three of her children, and two other men for suspected manslaughter after the weeklong inquest, local journalists said.

Yansaneh, acting editor of the daily For Di People, was assaulted on May 10. He died on July 28 of kidney failure, according to an autopsy. Yansaneh alleged that Hassan had ordered the attack, according to local sources and press freedom organizations. She has denied this.

Your Excellency,

The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled by the July 28 death of independent newspaper editor Harry Yansaneh.

An autopsy attributed Yansaneh's death to kidney failure. Yansaneh, acting editor of the daily For Di People, was assaulted on May 10 by a group of attackers. Prior to his death, Yansaneh alleged that Member of Parliament Fatmata Hassan had ordered the attack, according to local sources and press freedom organizations. Hassan, a member of your Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP), was seeking at the time to evict For Di People and five other independent newspapers from the office space they had rented from her family for many years. The other newspapers were The Independent Observer, The Pool, The African Champion, The Pioneer and The Progress.