Blogger detained in Nigeria
2008-11-01 10:51
Washington - A US journalist's rights group said on Friday that Nigeria is holding a US-based blogger without charge, in the second such incident in two weeks.
Emmanuel Emeka Asiwe, editor of the Arlington, Massachusetts-based HuhuOnline website, which focuses on Nigerian politics, was arrested on Tuesday at the Abuja airport, and has been "held incommunicado and without charge seen since", according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in New York.
Asiwe is being "questioned over matters of national security", said Nigerian State Security Service (SSS) spokesperson Kenechukwu Onyeogu.
CPJ said the Nigerian government has cracked down on foreign-based Nigerian political websites ever since photos of President Umaru Yar'Adua's teenage son, Musa, posing with an AK-47 assault rifle and holding cash, were published on a popular news blog.
"We are concerned that Nigerian authorities are detaining journalists in an attempt to intimidate foreign-based online journalists from reporting on Nigeria," said CPJ Africa Program Co-ordinator Tom Rhodes.
"We call on President Umaru Yar'Adua to ensure that the SSS respects due process and stop these actions that undermine Nigeria's democratic gains and harken back to the era of military rule."
Jonathan Elendu, a blogger for the Lansing, Michigan-based ElenduReports was detained mid-October for 10 days, and "provisionally released without charge" on Wednesday, said the CPJ in a statement.
Elendu told CPJ that Nigerian security agents interrogated him for five days over alleged links with other political websites, his journalistic sources, his source of income and his opinion of the Nigerian president.
"Agents also quizzed him about stories discussing Yar'Adua's health," said the CPJ.
- AFP