Press Freedom
CPJ Updates
- CPJ calls on Slovakia not to adopt press law amendment
- Covering elections: Journalist safety kit
- Turkmenistan journalist Soltan Achilova barred from traveling abroad
- Myanmar Supreme Court to hear appeal of jailed Reuters reporters
- Journalist Hiram Moreno survives gun attack in Oaxaca, Mexico
- Zambia suspends independent TV broadcaster for 30 days
- India elections 2019: Journalist safety kit
- British journalist in Albania targeted in smear campaign
- Internet blackouts in Venezuela, and fighting for justice in the Maldives
Reporter Without Borders
- Syria : Well-known Syrian citizen-journalist probably died in detention in 2013
- Police investigating killing of a journalist in Northern Ireland
- RSF Index 2019: UK rises in ranking, but press freedom climate remains worrying
- RSF’s Turkey representative defends himself in court
- Pakistani investigative reporter accused of “cyber-terrorism”
- RSF index 2019: regional analysis
- US – #WeeklyAddress: April 8 – 14: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrested in London on behalf of US
- Bosnia and Herzegovina: Republika Srpska public order bill would curb reporting freedom
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