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The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has included Foday Sankoh, head of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone, on its annual list of the Ten Worst Enemies of the Press, released on Wednesday to coincide with World Press Day.
CPJ said Sankoh’s RUF targeted journalists for murder during Sierra Leone’s civil war. Other people who figure prominently on the list are Ayatollah Khamenei, supreme leader of Iran, Slobodan Milosevic of Yugolsavia and Eduardo dos Santos of Angola.
The RUF, along with the allied Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), targeted all journalists as “enemies” during the civil strife that ravaged Sierra Leone for eight years, CPJ said. During a bloody three-week occupation of the capital, Freetown, in January 1999, rebel forces executed at least eight journalists, some together with their families, before being ousted by the Nigerian-led West African peacekeeping force, ECOMOG.
In all, ten journalists were killed in Sierra Leone in 1999 because of their work, CPJ said.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions