Attacks on the Media

The International Press Centre (IPC), Lagos-Nigeria, condemns in strong terms, the forceful closure of Daily Trust Newspapers' head office in Abuja and the organisation's Maiduguri office by military personnel on Sunday January 6, 2019. A senior editorial staff of the organisation confirmed the military onslaught on the media establishment stating that staff had been ordered out of the premises, laptops and computers seized and operations halted. No reason, he said, was given for the action. IPC considers this development as a fresh threat to freedom of the press as well as the freedom…Read more

The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Bangladeshi authorities to immediately release Hedait Hossain Molla, a reporter who was arrested in Khulna yesterday in relation to his election coverage, according to news reports. A court today ordered Molla to be held for three days pending investigation into an accusation that he violated the Digital Security Act and reported "false information" about the number of votes cast from Khulna during general elections on December 30, according to news reports. Molla works for the Dhaka Tribune, Bangla Tribune and Probaho, but reports did not…Read more

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is appalled by the physical attacks against journalists and violations of the free flow of information in the final week of the campaign for Bangladesh's parliamentary elections on Sunday (30 December). An alarming total of 12 journalists were injured when around30 masked individuals attacked the staff of two media outlets - the newspaper Jugantorand Jamuna TV - at around 10:30 p.m. on 24 December in their hotel in the Dhaka suburb of Nawabganj where they were staying while covering the last days of the campaign. Armed with steel rods…Read more

One year after freelance journalist Azory Gwanda disappeared in Tanzania, the Committee to Protect Journalists reiterated its call for a credible investigation and public accounting of his fate. Gwanda, who wrote for the privately owned Mwananchi and The Citizen newspapers, went missing on November 21, 2017. His wife, Anna Pinoni, reported seeing Gwanda leave their farm in Tanzania's Coast region with unidentified men in a white Land Cruiser, according to CPJ research. Gwanda told his wife he was taking an emergency trip, and would return the next day. He has not been seen…Read more

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for the immediate release of Amadou Vamoulké, the former head of state-owned Cameroon Radio & Television (CRTV), who has been held on trumped-up embezzlement charges since July 2016 and is due to appear in court again on 4 December in a trial already postponed 14 times in a row. The prosecution is scheduled on 4 December to submit interim conclusions at the next hearing before the Special Criminal Court in Yaoundé, giving the judges an opportunity to decide whether to continue the trial. In the two years and…Read more

Indian authorities should thoroughly investigate the killing of reporter Chandan Tiwari and bring those responsible to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Tiwari, a reporter for the Hindi daily Aj, was abducted on October 29, and found badly beaten the following day, according to NDTV. He later died in a hospital, according to reports. Police said the reporter was found injured in a forest about 175 miles from Pathalgada, in Jharkhand. At a press conference today, police identified three people-- Pintu Singh, Jamuna Prasad and Musafir Rana--whom they said are suspected…Read more

Authorities in Cameroon should immediately release or disclose charges against Michel Biem Tong, editor of the privately owned Hurinews website, who was detained on October 23 after being summoned to the State Secretariat for Defense in the capital, Yaoundé, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Prior to his arrest, Tong had published articles criticizing the Cameroonian government's handling of grievances of Anglophone Cameroonians from the western regions of the country in the run-up to presidential elections on October 7, according to a friend of the journalist who spoke to CPJ on condition…Read more

Media Foundation for West Africa (MWFA) Military officers in Nigeria arrested and detained for two days a reporter with ThePunchnewspaper during a swoop on residents of a community in Jos, Plateau State, on October 6, 2018. The reporter, Friday Olokor, who is The Punch's correspondent in Jos, is part of a group of journalists covering the military's peace enforcement operation in the state which has been in the grip of deadly ethnic clashes in recent times and is currently under a curfew. The military are also conducting a search for a retired officer,…Read more

The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Pakistani authorities to investigate and promptly bring to justice the killers of journalist Sohail Khan. Khan, a reporter for the Urdu daily K2 Times, was shot dead while driving in Haripur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, yesterday, according to multiple newsreports. News reports said that Khan received threats shortly after writing a story about the arrest of an alleged drug dealer named Musarrat Iqbal. Khan had filed an application at the district police office requesting protection on the day that he was killed, Iqbal Khattak, director of…Read more