On 24 June 2007 in Lesotho, a Public Eye reporter, Kabelo Masoabi, was verbally attacked at the ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy’s (LCD) rally in Makhaleng, Ha Ramabanta, in the Maseru district.

Masoabi said he was verbally attacked by the LCD youth leadership on arrival at the rally. The minister of communications, Mothetjoa Metsing, apparently came to his rescue when he intervened and alerted the party secretary general, Mpho Malie, of the fracas.

Masoabi said he was called aside by an LCD youth leader who told him to leave the place because he was allegedly biased in his reporting. He was further accused of damaging the image of the LCD.

  On 28 June, Philip Neville, publisher and editor of privately-owned Standard Times was arrested and detained in Sierra Leone at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Headquarters in Freetown, for allegedly publishing subversive materials. Although he has not being charged, the police have refused to grant him bail.

A team of policemen led by inspector A.A Mansaray on 27 June conducted a search at the newspaper’s offices looking for subversive documents suspected to be in possession of the newspaper. Neville, who was absent at the time of the search, was later questioned at the CID’s Headquarters and allowed to go home, before his arrest the following day.

In its 27 June edition, the Standard Times newspaper alleged on its front-page that Col. Muammar al-Gaddafi, the Libyan President, exposed the Sierra Leonean government by announcing at a rally that he had donated money and food items to the people. The article headlined: "Bombshell, Col. Gaddafi Exposes Government" said the Sierra Leoneans felt disappointed because the government had not informed them of the gesture.

In a press statement the government debunked the newspaper’s story describing it as "not only mischievous, malicious, inciting but also calculated to bring the president into hatred and excite public disaffection against the president."

  On 29 June, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) called on authorities in Somalia for a full and prompt investigation into a firebomb attack on the Shacab newspaper office in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, north-eastern Somalia.

The headquarters of private newspaper Shacab were attacked on 28 June by unknown individuals who threw petrol bombs at the building and then ran off. According to the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), nobody was hurt but the fire damaged a printing machine.

"We condemn this attack on Shacab which was a violent attempt to muzzle an independent voice," said Gabriel Baglo, Director of the IFJ Africa office. "We call on Puntland authorities and the Transitional Federal Government to conduct a full and prompt investigation into this incident and to bring the perpetrators to justice." The IFJ also renewed its call to Puntland authorities to find and charge those responsible for the murder of radio journalist Mohammed Abdullahi Khalif, shot dead on 5 May 2007 in crossfire.

  On 29 June, Reporters Without Borders protested the mistreatment in Comoros of reporter Elarifou Minihadji of Radio Ngazidja, a state-owned radio station on the island of Grande Comore, during the three days he was held by gendarmes on the breakaway island of Anjouan. Arrested on 24 June 2007 while covering a demonstration at Anjouan’s airport, Minihadji was sent back to Grande Comore after being released on 27 June.

"We are outraged by the extremely brutal treatment of this journalist, who is also a member of the Comorian Association of Human Rights (ACDH)," Reporters Without Borders said. "His dual status was almost certainly an underlying factor in his arrest, as Anjouan’s authorities reject any attempt by Grande Comore to intervene in its affairs."

The organisation added: "The constant political turmoil in the Comoros is not grounds for violating fundamental rights. On top of everything else, Minihadji’s arrest was illegal as the gendarmes gave no reason for detaining him."

  Fathia Khaled, a presenter on state-owned Eri-TV’s Arabic-language service in Eritrea, was arrested earlier in June 2007 and taken to one of the country’s detention centres. She may have been taken to the Sawa military camp in the northwest after being in touch with one or more persons who had fled across the border into Sudan on foot, said sources of Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

Khaled was one of the nine public media journalists who were arrested at their work centres in a crackdown beginning on 12 November 2006, and were held incommunicado for several weeks (see IFEX alerts of 1 December and 22 November 2006). They were arrested on suspicion of staying in contact with the defectors or planning to flee the country themselves.

"The information ministry, which is also the headquarters of the only news media permitted in Eritrea, has become a high-risk area where a sinister game of chance is played out," the press freedom organisation said. "Because of the world’s indifference, we are reduced to just watching, appalled and powerless, as the authorities continue to pick off journalists who have been unable to flee the reign of terror in Asmara."

  On 24 June 2007, the Minister for Health and Social Welfare, Njabulo Mabuza, banned the media in Swaziland from entering the Mbabane Government Hospital, the country’s biggest hospital, in search of news. The ban followed a series of media exposés on the alleged perpetual negligence of hospital staff that resulted in the recent death of a young girl who had been bitten by a rabid dog.

The media alleged the child died because of neglect by hospital staff and the shortage of drugs, a perennial problem that has brought criticism of the Ministry of Health and has further caused the health sector to deteriorate.

The previous week, Minister Mabuza issued a government memo to the hospital administration to deny the media access to the hospital premises without his permission. On 23 June, the Times of Swaziland newspaper experienced the effects of the Minister’s censorship order when its photographer, Albert Masango, was denied access to the hospital. Hospital security harassed and pulled Masango out of the premises and carried him out to the gate.

Amid Masango’s protestations, the security personnel stressed that, in accordance with a new "law", permission had to be obtained from either the Minister or his Principal Secretary before the media would be allowed to cover anything inside the hospital.

The Times contacted the Minister, who confirmed the new order and promised to issue a letter allowing the Times access to the hospital. However, the government has also banned hospital staff from talking to the media about anything at the hospital.

Sources of the alerts:

Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
International Freedom of Expression eXchange (IFEX)
Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)
Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)
International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)