In Burkina Faso, Mathieu N’do, managing editor of the opposition weekly San Finna, was detained by authorities on 5 November as he was returning from Ivory Coast, where he had travelled to report on the ongoing tensions between government and rebel forces. Local sources report the managing editors detention may be linked to his journalistic work, which is often critical of the Burkina Faso government. In particular, N’do has been an outspoken critic of government policy in Ivory Coast where Burkina Faso has been accused of arming the rebellion. Ndo is reportedly being held incommunicado by Burkina Faso’s national security service in Ouagadougou.
In Egypt, Abdel Halim Kandil, an editor and columnist at the opposition weekly Al-Arabi, was abducted outside his home in Cairo early in the morning on 2 November. The editor was entering his apartment building when he was approached by four men who attacked and blindfolded him, before forcing him into a car. The assailants, armed with knives, also confiscated Kandils mobile telephone and his glasses before dumping him in the middle of a desert road, stripped to his underwear, with a warning to stop writing about "important people.
In Ivory Coast, violent attacks were carried out on four private newspapers in Abidjan on 4 November. Armed youths invaded the premises of "Le Patriote", "24 Heures", "Le Nouveau Réveil" and "Le Libéral Nouveau", looting and destroying equipment and documents. The gangs also set fire to the premises of "Le Patriote", "24 Heures" and "Le Libéral Nouveau", which were badly damaged. All newspapers managed to evacuate staff, and no one was hurt. Also on 4 November, a number of newspapers considered sympathetic to the opposition were banned from distribution in the government-held south, according to international reports. Local sources reported that a government official had delivered a list of eight banned newspapers to the distribution company Edipresse: "Le Patriote", "24 Heures", "Le Nouveau Réveil", "Le Libéral Nouveau", "Le Front", "Ivoire Matin", "Le Journal des Journeaux" and "Le Jour Plus". Early in the morning of 4 November, local re-transmission of Radio France Internationale (RFI), the BBC World Service and Africa N°1 on FM frequencies were interrupted when an unidentified group of assailants sabotaged the groups joint relay installations.
In Liberia, a vehicle carrying a team of journalists from the independent newspaper The Analyst, were attacked by a group of angry youths on 29 October in Monrovia. The journalists had gone to verify news of hostilities in the suburb of the city between Christian and Muslim youths. According to local sources, the youths, armed with machetes, sticks and rocks surrounded the vehicle and ordered the occupants to step out. No one was hurt in the attack, however the assailants vandalized the vehicle.
In Nigeria, Owei Sikpi, reporter for the "Weekly Star" newspaper, in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, was assaulted on 25 October by thugs allegedly acting on orders of a local politician named Steven Diver. The assailants reportedly introduced themselves as State Security Service (SSS) operatives. They took Sikpi to a house where they beat him until he was nearly unconscious. The journalist was then stripped naked and had several photographs taken of him. The assailants allegedly warned him never to write anything against Diver again and threatened to publish the photographs of him naked if he did. The assault followed a news story written by Sikpi that reported that Diver had spent money illegally. Diver reportedly confronted the journalist and asked him to retract the article within a week or "face [his] wrath."
Sources for the alerts:
Ethiopian Free Press Journalists’ Association (EFJA), Addis Ababa
Human Rights Watch (HRW), United States
International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX), Canada
International Press Institute (IPI), Vienna, Austria
.Journaliste En Danger (JED), Democratic Republic of Congo
Media Foundation of West Africa (MFWA), Ghana
Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), Namibia
Media Rights Agenda (MRA), Nigeria
Network for the Defence of Independent Media in Africa (NDIMA), Nairobi, Kenya
Reporters Without Borders (RSF), France