Niger: Journalist given jail sentence for reporting on corruption in famine aid distribution

The Committee to Protect Journalists has condemned the jail sentence given to a magazine journalist who reported on alleged corruption in the distribution of food aid during this year's famine in Niger. On September 27, a court in the northern town of Agadez convicted Abdoulaye Harouna, publication director of the monthly Echos Express, of defaming the local governor, Yahaya Yendaka. The court sentenced him to four months in jail and fined him 520,000 CFA francs (US$950).