South African Journalist Released After Three Days Held In Djibouti
AFRICA
Photo: cdn-cabinet.ua.news
Djibouti / South Africa - Investigative journalist Micah Reddy, Africa editor for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, has been freed and deported from Djibouti after about three days in detention, the Committee to Protect Journalists confirmed.
Reddy arrived in Djibouti last Thursday and stayed in touch with family and colleagues until contact broke off on Saturday. Djibouti's interior minister, Omar Abdi, said Reddy was held for lacking proper media accreditation and had "deliberately avoided" obtaining it; Reddy's family said he was not on assignment when he was detained and that his fixer, Kooki Mahmoud, was released alongside him. He has since landed back in Johannesburg unharmed.
The detention adds to a running list of incidents across the Horn of Africa, where accreditation rules are increasingly used to hold foreign and freelance journalists.