Nigerian Times

13 Oct 2011 08:56 Africa/Lagos Nigeria police arrest six journalists NEW YORK, October 13, 2011/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- Police in Nigeria arrested six journalists and one staff member from independent daily The Nation on Tuesday concerning the publication of a purported private letter from former head of state Olusegun Obasanjo to President Goodluck Jonathan about administrators of government agencies, local journalists reported. On the front page of its October 4 edition, The Nation published a letter, allegedly written by Obasanjo, that recommended Jonathan replace five CEOs of several government agencies, news reports said. Obasanjo filed a complaint last week, accusing the newspaper of publishing the letter with a forgery of his signature, Olusola Amore, the national police spokesman, told CPJ. The Nation, widely perceived as an opposition paper, said in a statement that they stand by their story and the letter's authenticity. On Tuesday afternoon, detectives raide...

Post election violence in Nigeria: Photo Credit: BBC News 18 Apr 2011 19:14 Africa/Lagos Nigeria / Presidential election being held as attacks on media increase ABUJA, April 18, 2011/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- Reporters Without Borders has recorded more than 30 attacks on media freedom so far this year, despite reforms and the promises of outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan to ensure the free flow of news during the campaign for the 9 April parliamentary elections and today's presidential election. Nigeria has one of the poorest media freedom ratings in Africa and is 145th out of 178 countries in the 2010 Reporters Without Borders worldwide Press Freedom Index. It is a dangerous place for journalists to work. The country does have a diverse media and a flourishing Internet scene however and the senate passed a law last month giving public access to official information as long as it does not affect national security. But threats, intimidation, physical attacks and unlawf...

In a swift reaction to the crack down on bloggers by the Associated Press , TechCrunch has banned all links to AP news and stories . So here’s our new policy on A.P. stories: they don’t exist. We don’t see them, we don’t quote them, we don’t link to them. They’re banned until they abandon this new strategy, and I encourage others to do the same until they back down from these ridiculous attempts to stop the spread of information around the Internet. ~ Michael Arrington I was one of the first bloggers to react to the decison of the Associated Press on the Huffington Post yesterday. The following is the full text of my comment. Bloggers should ask for permission before using copyrighted news materials or they should register to use syndicated news and features. When I blog what I have read on the Huffington Post, I simply link to the title and address it with my own original content. The terms of service for the Associated Press is published on their website and every reasonable blogge...