Mohammed Kamara

New York, December 9, 2002—Liberian authorities released journalist Hassan Bility, whom authorities had held incommunicado since June 24 as a "prisoner of war."

According to news reports, Bility, editor of the independent weekly The Analyst, was released without being charged or tried. He left the country this weekend for an undisclosed location.

On December 1, the Liberian government issued a statement saying that Bility and his colleagues would be released if the U.S. Embassy agreed to take them out of the country.

New York, October 24, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) deplores the recent recommendation by a five-member military tribunal that editor Hassan Bility, who has been detained since June 24, be treated as a "prisoner of war."

According to a Liberian Defense Ministry statement, Bility, editor of the independent weekly The Analyst, is a prisoner of war because he allegedly colluded with the rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), reported The Associated Press.

August 15, 2002

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President Charles G. Taylor
President of the Republic of Liberia
Monrovia, Liberia

Via facsimile: 231-225-217

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Your Excellency:

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is extremely concerned about the whereabouts and the safety of Hassan Bility, editor-in-chief of The Analyst newspaper, which is based in Liberia's capital, Monrovia. He has been held incommunicado in state custody for almost two months. [See CPJ letter of July 3]

New York, July 26, 2002—The Court Martial Board, Liberia's military court, yesterday gave the government an August 7 deadline to produce Hassan Bility, a prominent newspaper editor who has been detained incommunicado since June 24.

Bility, editor of the weekly Analyst newspaper, was arrested with two other individuals—Ansumana Kamara and Mohammed Kamara—and charged with collaborating with the rebel group Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD). The three have been held incommunicado since then and have not been formally charged. The rebel group has denied any connection with the detained men.

Click here to read more about press freedom conditions in SIERRA LEONE

New York, May 24, 2000 --- The Committee to Protect Journalists is outraged by the latest murderous attack on journalists in Sierra Leone, which claimed the lives of two western journalists and left two others injured on Wednesday, according to news agencies and CPJ's sources in Freetown.

[Click here for full list of documented cases]

At its most fundamental level, the job of a journalist is to bear witness. In 1999, journalists in Sierra Leone witnessed rebels' atrocities against civilians in the streets of Freetown. In the Balkans, journalists watched ethnic Albanians fleeing the deadly menace of Serbian police and paramilitaries. In Indonesia, they recorded the violence of Indonesian-backed militias against supporters of political independence. Some who wrote about what they witnessed ended up dying because of the stories they told.

In 1999, Sierra Leone became the world's most dangerous country for journalists, with a total of 10 journalists killed in the line of duty. (See Special Report on Sierra Leone) The combined rebel forces of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) viewed all journalists as "enemies." During a bloody three-week occupation of the capital, Freetown, in January, rebel forces executed at least eight journalists, some together with their families, before being ousted by the Nigerian- led West African peacekeeping force (ECOMOG).