Press Freedom
CPJ Updates
- Police raid Cairo offices of Turkish Anadolu News Agency, arrest at least 4
- Ugandan police harass and detain journalists covering opposition politician Bobi Wine
- Journalist Patricia Kayuni assaulted while covering protest in Malawi
- Missing radio anchor found dead in Mexico’s Michoacán state
- Sudan suspends four news outlets over alleged financial link to Bashir regime
- Colombian magazine Semana alleges military spied on its journalists
- Montenegro reporters Živković and Raičević charged with criminal incitement
- Malawi detains, charges 3 journalists seeking to cover EU delegation’s return
- Journalists threatened, assaulted while covering local politician in Sierra Leone
Reporter Without Borders
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- Decision to charge Greenwald is a “unjustified reprisal,” RSF says
- Indonesia : US environmental reporter detained arbitrarily in Borneo
- Open letter about threats to Iranian journalists in six EU countries and US
- Russian republic’s leader says critical journalists should be “wiped out”
- Pakistani journalist jailed over Facebook posts
Nigeria November 22, 2006
H.E. Olusegun Obasanjo
Head of State
State House, Abuja
Federal Capital Territory
Federal Repubic of Nigeria
Fax: (011.234.9) 523-2136
Your Excellency:
The Overseas Press Club of America, an independent group of international correspondents, is dismayed to hear that sedition charges against Rotimi Durojaiye of the Daily Independent have not been dropped. Instead, the charges against him have been referred to a federal appeals court because prosecutors say he is not “remorseful.”
The charges against Durojaiye’s stem from his June 12 th story questioning the age and cost of the presidential jet. His story revealed that the federal government had not purchased a new Boeing jet, as had been officially reported, but a five-year-old airplane from Lufthansa. The story was later picked up by African Independent Television (AIT). Charges were subsequently brought against AIT presenter, Mike Gbenga Aruleba.
Aruleba and Durojaiye subsequently spent several days in jail in connection with the charges. In October, an Abuja court dropped charges against Aruleba and his news organization because they had shown “sufficient remorse,” according to prosecutors. But Mr. Durojaiye’s charges remained.
It is appalling that the federal government is punishing Durojaiye and attempting to suppress an embarrassing story ahead of next year’s elections. Nigeria ‘s reputation as a democracy is harmed by the charges against our colleague. We urge you to do all in your power to see that this injustice is ended, as it has been for our other colleague, Mike Aruleba.
We hope for the honor of a reply.
Respectfully yours,
Kevin McDermott
Norman A. Schorr
Co-chairmen – Freedom of the Press Committee
cc:
George Obiozor
Ambassador of Nigeria to the U.S.A.
Embassy of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
1333 16th Street, NW
Washington , DC 20036
Ambassador Aminu Bashir Wali
Permanent Representative
Permanent Mission of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
to the United Nations
828 Second Avenue
New York , NY 10017
Fax: (212) 697-1970
John Campbell
U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria
Embassy of the United States of America
P.O. Box 554
Lagos
Nigeria