International Freedom of Expression Exchange: The global network for free expression
5 August 2005
EDITOR'S DEATH SPARKS CALLS FOR PROBE
International PEN's Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC), Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF) and the International Press Institute (IPI) are calling on Sierra Leonean authorities to investigate the death of Harry Yansaneh, a journalist who died last week of kidney
failure two months after henchmen brutally attacked him in Freetown.
Yansaneh, the editor of the privately-owned newspaper "For Di People", died on 27 July 2005. In a letter he wrote to the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists before his death, Yansaneh accused Dr. Fatmata Hassan Komeh, a member of the ruling Sierra Leone People's Party, of ordering five men to physically assault him on 10 May. Yansaneh's face and body were left swollen from the beating, according to RSF.
A complaint was made to the police but no action has been taken. Some
of the assailants have reportedly left the country.
RSF has called for an autopsy to determine whether Yansaneh died from the injuries he suffered during the May attack.
International PEN says the motives for the assault appear to be Hassan Komeh's apparent desire to evict "For Di People" from the offices it rents from her, and her dislike of the newspaper's criticism of the government. On the same day that Yansaneh was attacked, Hassan Komeh forced five other independent newspapers - "The Independent Observer", "The African Champion", "The Progress", "The Pool" and "The Pioneer" - to leave the offices that they had been renting for more than ten years.
"For Di People" is well-known for its trenchant criticism of the government. In October 2004, former editor Paul Kamara was sentenced to four years in prison on charges of seditious libel after President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah lodged a complaint against the newspaper. Kamara had written articles in October 2003 which detailed a 1967 commission of inquiry linking Kabbah to fraud allegations.
Visit these links:
- WiPC:
http://www.internationalpen.org.uk/dev/viewArticles.asp?findID_=357
- RSF: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=14565
- IPI: http://www.freemedia.at/Protests2005/SierraLeone02.08.05.htm
- Draconian Law Used to Muzzle Critics: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/67056/
Also from the Communiqué, 5 August 2005
CÔTE D'IVOIRE: PRO-GOVERNMENT MILITIAS SPREAD FEAR THROUGH MEDIA 2 August 2005 SAUDI ARABIA: COURT RULING A SETBACK FOR REFORM 5 August 2005 INTERNATIONAL: IAPA ASSESSES PRESS FREEDOM IN THE AMERICAS 5 August 2005 SOMALIA: ARTICLE 19 HELPS DRAFT MEDIA CODE FOR SOMALILAND ELECTIONS 5 August 2005 AFGHANISTAN: Afghan Journalists Face Increasing Threats 5 August 2005Sierra Leone
Two pastors assault newspaper editor; community radio journalists attacked 7 December 2011 Edition of newspaper seized by police 10 November 2011 Presidential guards attack four journalists 9 September 2011 Newspaper reporter receives death threat 13 July 2011 Sports journalists under threat 8 July 2011 See all alerts: Sierra LeoneWest Africa
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CAMEROON: Coup charges against writer dropped, still faces military tribunal
7 February 2012
CÔTE D'IVOIRE: Two detained journalists released
3 February 2012
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