On 5 June, The Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Abuja, Nigeria, declared the arrest and detention of Chief Ebrima Manneh illegal and ordered the Gambian authorities to immediately release him. The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) filed the suit before the regional court on behalf of Chief Manneh. The court also awarded damages in the sum of US$ 100,000 in favour of Manneh against the Gambian Government.
On 3 June, the leader of a faction of the Zimbabwe opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Arthur Guseni Oliver Mutambara, appeared in court with charges of “contempt of court” and “communicating falsehoods to the state.” He has been accused of publishing false information in a 20 April opinion piece in The Standard newspaper. The newspaper’s editor, Davison Maruziva, is also facing charges for publishing the same article. Mutambara was granted a $20 billion bail (approximately US$28). He is summoned to return to court on 17 June when a trial date will be given.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned the methods being used by the Sudanese government to censor Khartoum-based newspapers. In the latest attack members of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) participated in a raid on the privately-owned Arabic-language daily Ajras Al-Huriyya on 2 June that ordered for the removal of a page from the day’s issue.
On 2 June, three South African drivers were sentenced to six-month prison sentences in the southwestern city of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe for “unauthorised possession of TV broadcast equipment.” The three drivers, Bernet Hasani Sono, Resemate Boy Chuake and Simon Maodi, were found carrying equipment belonging to British TV broadcaster Sky News when they were stopped at a police roadblock on 23 May. They were accused of illegally transmitting video from a factory.
The Media Institute for Southern Africa (MISA) in Zimbabwe has condemned the purging of 8 senior employees at the State Broadcaster. The employees were summarily given 2 months paid vacation and have been required to hand over their ZBC identity cards and stop all communication with other employees. MISA reported that this move was taken for the purposes of “partisan political expediency” during the time leading up to the Presidential run-off.
On 1 June, Samuel Ebo Bartels, sports reporter for Citi FM, an Accra-based independent radio station, was violently attacked by a group of police officers deployed at the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi, Ghana’s second largest city. A photojournalist who took pictures of the attack was also beaten by the same police officers. It was reported that the police prevented a number of journalists, even with proper accreditation to enter any part of the stadium, to conduct interviews with the Ghanaian national football team in the inner perimeter of the stadium.
In Algeria, a prosecutor requested a two-month prison sentence against editor Ali Ouafak, managing editor Farid Alilat, and cartoonist Ali Dilem on 1 June. The three journalists are being sued for defamation that has arisen from a cartoon. The disputed cartoon, published on 29 July 2004, pictured the retired Chief of Staff of the Algerian Army, General Mohamed Lamari. It prompted a complaint from the Defence Ministry to the Sidi M’hammed correctional court in Algiers. The court is set to deliver its verdict on 15 June.
Sources of the alerts:
Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)
Media Institute for Southern Africa (MISA)
Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
Arab Press Network (APN)