Press Freedom
CPJ Updates
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- Getting Away with Murder
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- Palestinian court orders block of dozens of news websites and Facebook pages
- Chinese journalist Sophia Huang Xueqin detained following coverage of Hong Kong protests
- CPJ calls on Tajik president to ensure journalists can report the news freely and safely
- Australian newspapers stand together for press freedom
Reporter Without Borders
- Malta: International organisations urge close scrutiny as the public inquiry into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia begins on 6 December
- Level of media control in Hungary is “unprecedented in an EU member state”
- Egypt continues biggest wave of arrests of journalists since 2014
- Latin American media: under control of families, economic and political elites
- Iran : Open season on journalists after deadly crackdown on protests
- NGOs criticize Russian plan to extend “foreign agents” law to journalists
- Malta: RSF files complaint in France in connection with Maltese journalist’s murder
- Pakistan: Pro-government activists besiege Dawn building in Islamabad
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