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JOHANNESBURG – The detentions of Nigerian publisher Agba Jalingo and Ethiopian editor Fekadu Mahtemework – the only journalists behind bars for their work in their countries, only tell part of the story of their governments\u2019 crackdowns on freedom of expression, the\u00a0Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The CPJ Africa programme’s\u00a0Muthoki Mumo and Jonathan Rozen said investigations throughout 2019 to compile the organisation’s list\u00a0of 250 journalists imprisoned in connection with their work identified multiple complex cases of jailed activist-journalists, whose ongoing detentions were found to be more connected with their political activities than their journalistic work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
“One example is Oyomole Sowore, the Nigerian activist and journalist who founded the\u00a0Sahara Reporters\u00a0news website. Sowore does not appear on CPJ\u2019s prison census. But his detention, and that of other activist-journalists arrested in Ethiopia, matters,” they said.<\/p>\n
Sahara Reporters\u2019 investigations into alleged corruption and other political issues in Nigeria had drawn the ire of officials and\u00a0CPJ had documented\u00a0repeated efforts over recent months to intimidate the paper\u2019s staff and take the website offline,\u00a0Mumo and Rozen said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Similarly, they said, CPJ research indicated old tools of censorship\u00a0had re-emerged across Ethiopia to silence dissenting voices, despite the reforms made under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.<\/p>\n