All parties to the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo should permit members of the press to work without fear of arrest, violence, and harassment, the Committee to Protect Journalists has said. On the morning July 5, a group of six soldiers with the M23 rebel group detained Henry Hererimana Serushago, a reporter at La Voix de Mikeno (RACOM) community radio broadcaster, according to the journalist, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview, and a report by Journaliste en Danger, a local press freedom group. Members of the M23, a rebel movement fighting the DRC government in…

The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) condemns the unprovoked violence meted out by Federal Somali Police Force (SPF) on two journalists as they reported on flooding in a Mogadishu district.The two journalists Mohamed Nur Mohamed and Munasar Abdirahaman Ahmed who are working for privately owned Arlaadi Media Network, as a reporter and cameraman respectively, were out in the field compiling a report on the floods that inundated Wadajir district and other neighbourhoods, when they were set upon by armed Police, who battered them and confiscated their equipment.Footage that captured part of the confrontation shows a police officer hitting Mohamed Nur Mohamed…

American journalist Stavros Nicolas Niarchos and Congolese journalist Joseph Kazadi Kamuanga were arrested and detained by the DRC’s intelligence services on Wednesday, 13 July for allegedly making contacts with armed groups. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemns the arrests. According to local media reports, Niarchos, who works for The Nation and New York magazines and Kamuanga, who worked as his fixer, were arrested in the south-eastern city of Lubumbashi by the Agence Nationale de Renseignements (ANR)  and taken to the capital, Kinshasa. Niarchos was questioned “about his close links with the armed groups, particularly Bakata Katanga”.   Niarchos had travelled to the DRC to report on nature conservation,…