In Cameroon, Guibaï Gatama, the editor of the weekly "L’Oeil du Sahel", and his colleague Abdoulaye Oumaté, were sentenced in absentia to five months in prison with no parole and a fine of five million CFA francs (approximately 7,600 euros) for defamation on 26 April. The charges stemmed from an article that appeared in the newspaper in January titled "Fotokol: the Gendarmes Block the Road". The article, written by Oumaté, accused the gendarmes of the Fotokol brigade of robbing citizens on the pretext of fighting road block gangs. A defamation complaint was subsequently filed by the captain of the brigade. None of the journalists attended the trial for fear of arrest, and one is thought to have fled the country.

  In the Democratic Republic of Congo, six journalists were abducted by a group of Mai Mai militiamen operating under the command an individual named "Chinja Chinja" ("Cut-Throat") on 24 April. They had gone to cover the disarmament of armed militias in Katanga province, in the south-eastern region of the country. The journalists are reportedly being held in the port of Kilumbe, Upper Lomami district. News of the hostage-taking came from one of the abductees, Adam Shemisi, a journalist with the privately-owned station Tropicana, who managed to escape. He identified the other detainees as Jean-Marie Mususa, of the Congolese News Agency, Pierrot Nsenga and Léon Kabasele, of RTNC/Lubumbashi, Freddy Mwanza, a cameraman with Raga TV, and Scott Mayemba, of the Kinshasa-based newspaper "Uhuru". The abducted journalists had accompanied a clergyman to the area. No official reason was given for the hostage-taking, but it is believed that it may have come in retaliation of the 8 April arrest of Mai Mai militia commander "Chinja Chinja" in Kinshasa. The commander has been charged with human rights abuses against local citizens in the Upper Lomami district.

  In Guinea, issue no. 2311 of the JA lIntelligent magazine was prevented from being distributed on 24 April by the Minister of Interior, Kiridi Bangoura, for carrying a story and commentary on the health of the president, General Lansana Conte. The newsmagazine was allowed to reappear on the newsstands on 27 April. The article and commentary by journalist Cheikh Yerim Seck appeared alongside a picture of the president with his back to the camera, and made reference to the serious state of the Presidents health resulting in his very few public appearances.

  In Nigeria, Femi Akinola of the daily "New Age", and Bamidele Ayodo of the Ogun state government-owned Gateway Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), were assaulted by a group of assailants on 26 April in Ikeja, the capital of Lagos state. The incident took place at a press briefing organised by the Lagos state commissioner for transportation, Muiz Banire, to review his ministry’s performance over the past year. While attempting to force their way into the press centre, the individuals attacked the journalists and beat them. Akinola sustained several injuries, including the dislocation of his lower jaw and a broken tooth, while Ayodo suffered from a deep cut on his upper lip. The assailants were reportedly loyal to the ruling political party in Lagos state, the Alliance for Democracy (AD).

  In Sierra Leone, Ahmed Sheriff, a correspondent for the independent daily "Salone Times", was barred from the premises of the Criminal Investigation Department of the police station in the city of Kenema, about 200 kilometres east of Freetown on 28 April. Police officers reportedly manhandled the journalist who had gone to the station to investigate a recent murder case.

  In Togo, on the evening of 24 April the day of the countrys presidential elections - Thierry Tchukriel, a journalist with Rd’Autanradio station, was detained and beaten by Togolese soldiers. His identity papers, including his press card, were also confiscated. The journalist had been covering the vote-counting at an election office near the Lomé market. A day after the election, La Paix radio station was ransacked and burned to the ground in Atakpamé, central Togo. Telephone, internet and fax communications were also reportedly suspended or interrupted in the days leading up to and following the elections.

  In Tunisia, the jailed editor Hamadi Jebali ended his hunger strike on 25 April, three days after being released from solitary confinement and transferred to a different prison. Jebali began his hunger strike on 9 April. The journalist has been in prison since 1991 on charges of defamation and for belonging to an illegal organisation. The charges of defamation followed the publication of an article that called for the closure of military tribunals in his publication "Al Fajr", which has links to Tunisias the Islamic movement. Jebali received one years imprisonment as a result of the article. In 1992, he was sentenced to sixteen years in prison, this time for "belonging to an illegal organisation" and "attempting to change the nature of the state".

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