A number of attacks and threats have been made against journalists covering the Sengalese presidential elections. At least 12 incidents of threats and physical harm have been recorded against journalists in the lead up to and aftermath of the vote. Senegal’s incumbent President Abdoulaye Wade stood against thirteen other candidates in elections for a third term in power on Sunday. No official results have been released.
A radio journalist has been shot dead by two unidentified men in Somalia. Abukar Hassan Mohamoud, nicknamed Kadaf, was the manager of Mogadishu-based radio Somaliweyn. Mohamoud was shot five times in the head and chest at his home in Mogadishu on 28 February. Mohamoud, who had been trying to relaunch the radio station which had been shut down by an extremist group in May 2010, died from his injuries in hospital soon after the attack.
An Afghan radio journalist was beheaded on Tuesday night in the southeast province of Paktika, Afghanistan. AFP quoted a local official as saying that Samid Khan Bahadarzai, 25, had been lured to a meeting with unidentified men hours before his body was found near his home in Urgun, a town close to the Pakistan border. Afghan news website Khaama Press reported that the journalist had worked for Mehman Radio, a local station.
Cuban authorities yesterday prevented members of women’s organisation Ladies in White from entering a building in downtown Havana for an event commemorating the second anniversary of the death of activist Orlando Zapata Tamayo. Authorities reportedly diverted traffic from passing in front of the headquarters, stationed police officers in the four corners of the crossroad and checked identification cards of all pedestrians passing through the area.