Chad / Africa

  
Chad's president, Idriss Deby, arrives at the N'Djamena international airport on December 22, 2018. CPJ joined a call to end a nearly one-year social media block in Chad. (AFP/Ludovic Marin)

CPJ joins calls to end social media block in Chad

The Committee to Protect Journalists this week joined at least 79 rights organizations to urge African Union and United Nations experts to take action to end the government of Chad’s nearly year-long block on social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp. The letters, addressed respectively to the African Union Special Rapporteur on Freedom of…

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A man reads a newspaper in street in N'djamena, Chad, on April 12, 2016. A publisher was recently handed a suspended jail term in a defamation suit involving the president's brother. (Issouf Sanogo/AFP)

Chad publisher handed suspended jail term for critical reporting on president’s brother

Deli Nestor, publisher of the privately owned semi-weekly investigative newspaper Eclairage in Chad, was handed a six-month suspended prison sentence by a criminal court in N’Djamena on February 13, 2019, after he was convicted of defaming the brother of President Idriss Deby, according to Nestor, who spoke to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L) and Chad's President Idriss Deby (R) pose for photographs at the presidential palace ahead of a meeting, in N'Djamena, on December 26, 2017. Journalist Mahamat Abakhar Issa wrote a satirical piece, published on December 27, 2017, outlining a conversation between Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and Erdoğan in which Chad is characterized as unstable and unworthy of investment. (AFP/Brahim Adji)

Chad arrests local journalist over satire piece

Judicial police in Chad’s capital N’Djamena on January 29, 2018, released Mahamat Abakar Issa, the director of the weekly newspaper Alchahed, after detaining him for seven days, according to Djimet Witche Wahili, the director of the privately owned news site Alwihda Info.

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Chadian journalist imprisoned after report on airline’s alleged weapons smuggling

New York, October 26, 2017–Chadian authorities should immediately release from detention and drop all charges against Juda Allahondoum, publisher of the weekly Le Visionnaire newspaper, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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Chadian President Idriss Deby sits in the presidential palace in N'Djamena, December 29, 2017 (Reuters)

Chad journalists in hiding after threats

Abuja, Nigeria, March 6, 2017–Chadian domestic intelligence officers should cease harassing and attempting to intimidate journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. At least two journalists have gone into hiding following harassment from National Security Agency (ANS) officers in recent weeks, and another was detained and forced to apologize for his work.

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Chad police close radio station, detain manager

Police in Kelo, some 400 kilometres (249 miles) south of the capital N’Djamena, on November 14, 2016, arrested Edmond Oueidigue Kandi, the manager of the community radio station Radio Bargadje, and ordered the station closed, Kandi told the Committee to Protect Journalists. According to Kandi and media reports, local administrative authorities ordered the station closed…

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RFI reporter assaulted in Chad, then expelled

Abuja, Nigeria, June 26, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Chadian authorities’ ejection this week of a French journalist. Laurent Correau, reporter for Radio France Internationale, was assaulted by police alongside an international human rights defender before being expelled, according to news reports.

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Chadian editor given six-month suspended jail term

Juda Allahondoum, editor of the private weekly La Une based in the capital, N’Djamena, was convicted of criminal defamation on July 30, 2013, and sentenced to a suspended prison term of six months, Allahondoum and his lawyer told CPJ.

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Chadian journalists given suspended jail terms, released

Three Chadian journalists jailed for several months in the capital, N’Djamena, while facing prosecution on defamation and anti-state charges, were handed suspended jail terms and then released, according to news reports and local journalists.

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Chad should release journalists from detention

Your Excellency Idriss Deby Itno: We are writing to express our concern about the ongoing imprisonment of Chadian journalists on anti-state charges. We believe the arrests of these reporters, simply for writing articles critical of the administration, turn dissenting citizens into criminals and stifle legitimate debate on issues of public interest.

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