(CPJ/IFEX) – On 15 June 1998, Christine Anyanwu, publisher and editor-in-chief of the now-defunct “The Sunday Magazine”, who was arrested on 31 May 1995 for her reporting on an alleged coup plot in March 1995, was released on the orders of General Abdulsalam Abubakar, Chairman of the Provisional Ruling Council. **Updates IFEX alerts dated 18 […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – On 15 June 1998, Christine Anyanwu, publisher and
editor-in-chief of
the now-defunct “The Sunday Magazine”, who was arrested on 31 May 1995 for
her
reporting on an alleged coup plot in March 1995, was released on the orders
of General Abdulsalam Abubakar, Chairman of the Provisional Ruling Council.
**Updates IFEX alerts dated 18 August and 23 June 1997; 27 October, 1
August, 22 May 1995; and others**
Background Information
In July 1995, a special military tribunal secretly tried Anyanwu and
sentenced her to life imprisonment for treason. On 1 October 1995, her life
sentence was commuted to fifteen years in prison by the Provisional Ruling
Council. Anyanwu was transferred to a prison in Bama, north-eastern Nigeria,
notorious for its poor conditions. Anyanwu is a recipient of CPJ’s 1997
International Press Freedom Award and the 1998 UNESCO Guillermo Cano World
Press Freedom Prize. At the end of 1997, she was being held at Kadu Prison
in Kaduna State and was in desperate need of medical attention for her
deteriorating eyesight deteriorated.
George Mbah of “Tell”, Ben Charles Obi of “Weekend Classique” and Kunle
Ajibade
“TheNews”, who were arrested and sentenced with Anyanwu in March and May
1995,
remain imprisoned. There are currently seventeen journalists imprisoned
journalists in Nigeria (see IFEX alerts).
Recommended Action
Send appeals to authorities:
Obi,
and Kunle Ajibade, who are among the seventeen currently imprisoned
journalist
right
of independent journalists in Nigeria to exercise their profession freely
Appeals To
His Excellency General Abdulsalam Abubakar
Chairman of the Provisional Ruling Council
and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces
State House, Abuja
Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria
Fax: +234 6 95232
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
