National Intelligence Agency

New York, August 12, 2011--Gambian state security agency forced radio station Taranga FM to drop its popular news and current affairs programs for the second time this year, local journalists said. The National Intelligence Agency (NIA) threatened to close the community station southwest of the capital, Banjul, if the broadcaster did not drop its daily news programs in Wolof and Mandinka.

Dozens of Togolese journalists marched in the capital, Lomé, on Saturday to call attention to reported allegations that government security agents planned to retaliate against critical reporters. The allegations themselves are in dispute--the government called them "fabricated"--but they are set against a recent U.N. report expressing concern over the official use of arbitrary detention and the alleged use of torture.