Intimidation & Harassment

Pakistani TV reporter murdered for covering criminal gang

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for an all-out investigation into the murder of Mirza Waseem Baig, a reporter for the 92 News TV channel, who was gunned down in the state of Punjab, in eastern Pakistan, after covering the activities of a criminal gang specializing in extortion. Based in Sarai Alamgir, 120 km southeast of Islamabad, Baig died while being taken to hospital after being shot six times at close range by three men outside his home on 30 August. The police officer in charge of the investigation, Ameer Abbas, told RSF that…Read more

Singapore prime minister threatens to sue The Online Citizen for libel

Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong should drop his legal threat against news website The Online Citizen and cease his government’s long-running legal harassment of independent media, the Committee to Protect Journalists said. On September 1, Lee’s press secretary, Chang Li Lin, sent a letter to The Online Citizen’s chief editor, Terry Xu, threatening to file libel charges if he did not retract an article about Lee’s allegedly strained relationship with his siblings from the outlet’s website and Facebook page and publish an unconditional apology by September 4, according to news reports citing the letter. Xu told CPJ via…Read more

Nigerian publisher Agba Jalingo detained since August 22 without charge

Nigerian authorities should immediately release publisher Agba Jalingo and halt their harassment of journalists reporting on alleged corruption and other issues of public interest, said the Committee to Protect Journalists. On August 22, in Lagos, police officers with Nigeria’s special anti-robbery squad arrested Jalingo, publisher of online news outlet CrossRiverWatch, according to Attah Ochinke, Jalingo’s lawyer, and Jeremiah Achibong, an editor at CrossRiverWatch, who spoke with CPJ over the phone. On August 23, authorities transferred Jalingo to a detention facility run by the anti-cult and anti-kidnapping police in Calabar, the capital of Nigeria’s southern Cross…Read more

Tanzania detains Watetezi TV journalist over investigation of police

The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned for the welfare of investigative journalist Joseph Gandye, who was arrested yesterday and handed over to police on whom he had reported critically, alleging they had abused other detainees. Police summoned Gandye, a production editor and reporter with Watetezi TV, to appear at Urafiki police station in Dar es Salaam, where they questioned him in the presence of his lawyer about his reporting, according to a statement from the Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition, a non-governmental coalition that owns Watetezi TV. Police said they arrested Gandye on suspicion of publishing false…Read more

Cameroonian journalist detained on criminal defamation and false news charges

Abidjan, June 20, 2019 -- Cameroonian authorities should immediately release journalist Paul Chouta and drop criminal defamation and false news charges against him, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On May 28, in the Cameroonian capital of Yaounde, five police officers arrested Chouta, who works as a reporter for the privately owned Cameroon Web news website, in response to a defamation complaint filed by French Cameroonian writer Calixthe Beyala, according to Cameroon Web editor-in-chief Emmanuel Vitus, who spoke with CPJ via messaging app, and a person with knowledge of the case who asked not to be…Read more

Kenyan media group trolled by pro-ruling party activists

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns a social media campaign designed to smear and intimidate Kenya’s leading independent, privately-owned media group, Nation Media Group (NMG), and calls on the authorities to identify and sanction those responsible. Thousands of messages with the #NationMediaGarbage hashtag began circulating on Twitter on 6 June to the point that by the next day it was one of Kenya’s ten most shared hashtags. The blitz was launched by a group of activists who make no secret of their support for President Uhuru Kenyatta. According to NMG’s Daily Nation newspaper, around a dozen people are behind…Read more

Journalists assaulted, news vehicle burned at Kenyan high school

Kenyan authorities should thoroughly investigate the attack on a Kenya Television Network news team at a Machakos county high school and hold the perpetrators to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On June 3, a group of students at St. Steven's Girls High School, a boarding school in Machakos county, and their principal attacked a team of journalists with the privately owned Kenya Television Network, according to news reports and two journalists from the network, who spoke with CPJ. Students kicked, punched, and threw stones at reporter Carolyne Bii, driver Immaculate Joseph, and cameraman…Read more
IPC Nigeria condemns attacks on journalists during elections

IPC Nigeria condemns attacks on journalists during elections

The International Press Centre (IPC), Lagos has expressed strong concern over reported incidents of attacks on journalists and other media professionals during the Presidential and Senatorial elections held on Saturday February 23, 2019. Information gathered by IPC's media and election situation room revealed that not less than five journalists and media professionals faced one form of harassment or the other including arrest, denial of access to collation centres and gunshot injury. The details of these incidents include, the arrest of Nwanosike Onu of The Nation, Geoffrey Anyanwu of the Sun, David-Chyddy Eleke of THISDAY, Vincent Ujumadu of Vanguard and Tony…Read more
Ugandan regulator orders news website suspended and threatens criminal charges

Ugandan regulator orders news website suspended and threatens criminal charges

Ugandan authorities should withdraw a directive ordering the suspension of the Daily Monitor news website, retract a threat of criminal proceedings against the publication, and refrain from using regulations to retaliate against journalists covering sensitive political issues, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On February 6, the Uganda Communications Commission, a broadcasting and telecommunications sector regulator, wrote a letter to the Daily Monitor's parent company, Monitor Publications Limited, ordering the company to immediately suspend publication of its news website, according to a copy of the letter seen by CPJ. The letter said that the Monitor had not…Read more
Uganda: BBC journalists ‘facing trumped up charges’

Uganda: BBC journalists ‘facing trumped up charges’

Human Rights Network for Journalists Uganda On 8 February 2019, police in Kampala released three British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) journalists, their driver and a wife to NBS's senior investigative journalist Solomon Serwanjja after spending two nights in police custody. They were released on police bond on charges of being in "unlawful possession of classified government drugs".  The journalists are; Kassim Mohammed, Rashid Kaweesa, Godfery Badebye of BBC, their driver Shafik who were arrested on Wednesday night and Vivian Nakaliika Serwanjja - Serwanjja's wife.  Meanwhile, Solomon Serwanjja also arrived at the Central Police Station…Read more