(RSF/IFEX) – Journalist David Ochami, who works for “Nation” newspaper in Garissa, was threatened by Mohamud Saleh, the North Eastern Province provincial commissioner. In a 21 June 2002 article, the reporter quoted Saleh as saying that previous administrators had turned a blind eye to insecurity in the region and had benefitted from it. “If the […]
(RSF/IFEX) – Journalist David Ochami, who works for “Nation” newspaper in Garissa, was threatened by Mohamud Saleh, the North Eastern Province provincial commissioner. In a 21 June 2002 article, the reporter quoted Saleh as saying that previous administrators had turned a blind eye to insecurity in the region and had benefitted from it. “If the remarks published in the newspaper were incorrect, you have every right to demand that the newspaper publish a correction,” said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard, in a letter to Saleh. “We call on you to halt all persecution of this journalist and all harassment of his colleagues, and allow these media professionals to carry out their work safely and independently in North Eastern Province.”
According to information obtained by RSF, after Ochami’s article appeared he was forced to take refuge in the capital, Nairobi, for fear of being arrested. Saleh tried unsuccessfully to get other journalists to contradict the “Nation”‘s version of the story. He urged the Kenya News Agency to stop cooperating with Ochami. The provincial commissioner also ordered all his officers and the Garissa mayor to prevent Ochami from working in the region. The journalist and one of his colleagues, Adam Mohammed of “People Daily” newspaper, were put on a black list.
RSF recalls that Saleh has harassed other journalists in the past, including Mohammed of the “People Daily”, Victore Obure of the “East African Standard” and Milton Omondi of the Kenya News Agency.
