On 6 August, intelligence agents in central Democratic Republic of Congo jailed a reporter for failing to air an interview with a local politician, according to news reports and local journalists.

Manda Mutombo of Radiotélévision Nationale Congolaise was reportedly arrested on 3 August by Congo’s National Intelligence Agency in the diamond-rich city of Kananga, 674 miles (1,085 km) southeast of the capital, Kinshasa.

"It is outrageous that a reporter should be jailed for failing to air an interview. He should be released now," said Joel Simon, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) executive director. "If failing to air an interview was a crime, half the profession would be in jail."

  On 4 August, a last minute amendment introduced in the final stages to the Media Council Bill by a pro-government Member of Parliament in Kenya, was adopted and passed by a minority of Kenya’s Parliament. The law requires editors to disclose the identity of the unnamed parties who are not disclosed and who become the subject of a “legal tussle.”

The government argues that the law will enforce ethics in journalism, but press freedom analysts say it will curtail freedom of press, intimidate sources and expose the media to undue litigation.

The inclusion of the amendment, introduced on the floor of Parliament, defeated informal negotiations between the ministry and media that had succeeded in removing other proposals such as the licencing of journalists. The law awaits Presidential assent to take effect and media organisations have vowed to challenge its constitutionality, should President Mwai Kibaki endorse it.

  On 3 August, journalists in Comoros said they were prevented from travelling to the separatist island of Anjouan to cover Independence Day celebrations on 3 August. Local reporters say travel agencies refused to sell them airline tickets.

Editor Ibrahim Ali Saïd Félix and cameraman Ismael Kassim of Djabal Télévision, a private station based on the main volcanic island of Grande Comore, were unable to board a flight to Anjouan after travel agencies refused to sell them tickets until Monday, Djabal TV director Mmadi Moindjié told CPJ. Moindjié and Félix allege that Comores Aviation and Air Service Comores, two private travel agencies that exclusively provide inter-island trips from the capital, Moroni, linked the move to government pressure in connection with Djabal TV’s coverage of Anjouan authorities.

Djabal TV had been the only media to report from Anjouan since Col. Mohamed Bacar proclaimed himself president in June. The Comoros’ national government does not officially recognize him, local journalists told CPJ. The station’s coverage was dominated by daily interviews of Anjouan leaders and opposition figures, they said.

  On 6 August, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the government’s seizure in Morocco of the editions of two independent publications, Arabic-language weekly Nichane, and its sister publication the French-language weekly TelQuel, alleging that the magazines disrespected King Mohammed VI and violated public morality.

On 4 August, Moroccan police seized copies of Nichane from newsstands and other locations around the country and confiscated printed copies of TelQuel at the printing press used by both magazines, local journalists told CPJ. Some 50,000 non-assembled copies of TelQuel were destroyed at the printing house, according to sources at TelQuel.

An editorial written by Benchemsi and published in Nichane over the weekend triggered the seizures of the two magazines, according to journalists at TelQuel. The editorial took issue with King Mohammed VI’s commitment to democracy and questioned the use of legislative elections slated for 7 September, as long as the King firmly controls all powers. The same editorial was slated to run in French in TelQuel until authorities confiscated it.

  Misheck Sibanda, the Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet in Zimbabwe announced the signing into law of the Interception of Communications Law by President Robert Mugabe on 3 August 2007. The Act will make lawful the interception and monitoring of communications in the course of their transmission through a telecommunication, postal or any other related service or system in Zimbabwe and provides for the establishment of a monitoring centre.

Service providers, among them Internet Service Providers (ISPs), are required to install systems that are "technically capable of supporting lawful interception at all times." ISPs will not have long to comply with this law as the Act clearly states that regulations to this effect will be issued within two months of the commencement of this Act.

"It is indeed a very sad day for Zimbabweans who for a long time now have had their right to freedom of expression being taken for granted. The government has refused to open the airwaves, closed newspapers and, as if that is not enough, it now wants to pry into people’s conversations,” said MISA-Zimbabwe Chairperson Loughty Dube. “This is simply an indication of a government that is afraid of its own citizens. And when a government becomes afraid of its own citizens, it becomes a danger upon those citizens.”

  On 26 July, in Guinea-Bissau, Allen Yéro Embalo, correspondent for Radio France Internationale (RFI) and Agence France-Presse (AFP), Alberto Dabo, correspondent for both the BBC’s French-language service and Reuters, as well as journalists Eva Maria Auzenda Biague and Fernando Jorge Perreira went into hiding in the wake of a police announcement ordering them to report to the nearest police station. The journalists also feared they would be detained and tortured at a military camp since the country has no prison facilities.

Following recent media reports on a drug-trafficking scandal that hit the country, the UN named Guinea Bissau as a major trafficking and transit point. The report specifically identified the country’s armed forces, especially the Marine Unit, as a major collaborator in the drug trade. The sources said the army, outraged by the UN report, began a crackdown on journalists they suspected of distributing such "damaging" information.

  On 2 August, the High Court in Ethiopia handed down heavy prison sentences to four journalists jailed in connection with their coverage of deadly post-election unrest in 2005, after the journalists waived their defense and pleaded guilty in anticipation of a pardon, according to local sources. All of them worked for now-defunct Amharic-language weeklies.

Editors Dawit Kebede of Hadar and Wosonseged Gebrekidan of Addis Zena were sentenced Monday to four years in prison each on charges of "inciting and conspiring to commit outrages to the constitutional order," their former lawyer, Weneawake Ayele, told CPJ.

Monday’s ruling followed the Friday convictions of editor Goshu Moges of Lisane Hezeb and freelance columnist Tadios Tantu, jailed in February 2006 on similar charges, after accusations of "belonging to an illegal political organization," according to Ayele. Moges, who had issued public statements critical of the government crackdown on the press and government opponents, was sentenced to 10 years and Tantu to 15 years. All four journalists were expected to regain their freedom in the coming days on conditional pardon, joining four others pardoned last month, local journalists told CPJ.

  A journalist who has been missing for more than a year was spotted at a main hospital in Gambia, reported the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), who has focused a campaign on the case.

"Chief" Ebrima Manneh, a reporter with the pro-government newspaper Daily Observer, was seen on 26 July at the Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital in Banjul, where he was getting treatment for high blood pressure. He was then transferred to a military clinic nearby. MFWA reports that in the hospital, he was in the company of personnel of the Police Intervention Unit, a paramilitary wing of the Gambian police force.

Manneh has been held incommunicado without charge or trial since July 2006 after allegedly passing on "damaging" information to a foreign journalist at the African Union Heads of State summit a week prior. According to MFWA, Manneh’s colleagues witnessed his arrest by two plainclothes officers of the National Intelligence Agency, although the security force has repeatedly denied any knowledge of his whereabouts. Manneh is believed to have been detained in Mile Two Central Prison in Banjul’s outskirts, after being moved from one detention centre to another in many of Gambia’s police stations.

Sources of the Alerts:

International Freedom of Expression exchange (IFEX)
Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
Kenya Media Institute