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Two reporters from The Monitor newspaper, Angelo Izama and Charles Mwanguhya Mpagi Izama lost an appeal to compel the government to release papers relating to oil deals, when the judge decided the information was not in the public interest. Izama was arrested and bailed for criminal libel last week in an unrelated case.
Peter Sawali was arrested in Blantyre on 3 February for putting up posters saying ‘Gay rights are human rights’. He was charged with ‘conduct likely to cause a breach of peace’ and could face up to three months in prison. A police spokesman Dave Chingwalu said “We cannot rule out international sponsors because of the quality and the quantity of the posters.”
Henry Ochieng, editor of the Daily Monitor news magazine and Angelo Izama, a senior reporter were charged with criminal libel yesterday after a complaint from President Yoweri Museveni about an article that compared him to Ferdinand Marcos, former leader of the Philippines. The journalists have been released on bail, pending the trial on 25 February.
Five people were arrested on 3 February after a group of men assaulted Victoire Ingabire; her assistant Joseph Ntawangundi was badly beaten in the attack in the capital, Kigali. Ingabire who intends to run for president returned to Rwanda in January after 16 years in the Netherlands. She has been criticised for highlighting the deaths of Hutus in the genocide and for claiming that the current government is dominated by a Tutsi elite. Gregory Mthembu Salter, a research associate at the South African Institute of International Affairs, said the attack may reflect a need for Rwanda to better uphold freedom of speech.