Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

(CPJ/IFEX) – Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels are still engaged in combat and the targeting of civilians in the east end of Freetown, and a number of journalists remain in grave danger. Because of CPJ’s concern for the safety of our Sierra Leonean journalist colleagues, and the continued security crisis in Freetown and Sierra Leone […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – Lansana Fofana, a stringer with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), is reportedly alive and safe in Freetown. He recounted his experiences of the past two weeks on the BBC on 20 January 1999. officer was arrested by the police welcoming the authorities’ willingness to prosecute him asking him to use his influence to […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – Jenner “J.C.” Cole, who was killed by Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels on 9 January 1999, was an on-air broadcaster with SKY-FM (106). He had previously worked with the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service (SLBS). Cole leaves behind a son and pregnant fiance, a mother, father, two brothers, two sisters, two neices, and several […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is an update on the horrific experiences of our colleagues in Sierra Leone during the battle for control of Freetown between the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels, Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC) fighters, and ECOMOG (the West African Peacekeeping Forces). It is clear from the information that CPJ is receiving from […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ is outraged over the two-year prison sentence given on 20 January 1999 to Lin Hai, a software entrepreneur who was tried in December 1998 in Shanghai on charges of attempting to overthrow the state by providing e-mail addresses to a dissident on-line Chinese magazine. **Updates IFEX alert of 9 December 1998** Lin […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – Associated Press (AP) television producer Myles Tierney, 34, of New York City, was killed when the vehicle he was traveling in through Freetown was sprayed with bullets by a man reported to be a rebel. Abidjan-based AP Television West Africa bureau chief Ian Stewart, 32, also in the vehicle, was shot in the […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – Three State Security officers detained Havana Press correspondents Jesús Díaz Loyola, Lázaro Rodríguez Torres, and María del Carmen Carro Gomez as well as Havana Press Director Jorge Olivera on the afternoon of 6 January 1999. The journalists have been threatened with beatings. The State Security officers — who give their names as Kevin, […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – On 31 December 1998, Col. Sam Bockrie of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel forces said, during an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), that BBC Makeni stringer Sylvester Rogers was biased against the rebels in his reporting, and that such people would be dealt with if the rebels take Makeni. Rogers […]