Mallam Tukur, editor and publisher of Desert Herald, an independent weekly in Kaduna state, has been arrested and threatened with prosecution on defamation charges. The Committee to Protect Journalists claim the threats are related to a recent article accusing Yobe’s Governor Ibrahim Geidam of corruption.
An award winning Uzbek photographer sentenced to jail after a court ruled she had insulted the nation, has been released thanks to an amnesty. Umida Akhmedova said that she had done nothing wrong and will therefore appeal on the verdict. Akhmedova could have faced six months in jail or two years in a labour camp.
An Egyptian criminal court has convicted Yasser Barakat, editor-in-chief of the weekly Al Mougaz of defamation. The suit was filed by Mustafa Bakri, editor-in-chief of the weekly Al-Osbo’ and member of the Egyptian parliament. Barakat has been sentenced to one year in prison and a fine of 60,000 Egyptian pounds. Al Mougaz accused Barakat of engaging in illegal profiteering, taking advantage of his governmental positions to buy land for less than the market value.
Public hearings into the Iraq war are set to begin on 24 November, the panel’s chairman Sir John Chilcot said today. But witnesses still do not know whether the evidence they give will ever make its way into the public domain, says Chris Ames
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