Liberia reporter gets death, mutilation threats
Mar 14, 2012, 11:19 AM
JOHANNESBURG (AP) – An international media freedom group says it has asked Liberia’s president to intervene to stop death and mutilation threats against a journalist over her reporting on female circumcision.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists says reporter Mae Azango is in hiding in the West African nation after receiving death threats and messages that she will be “caught and cut.”
She had reported on the tradition of genital mutilation by some ethnic groups in Africa.
The committee says Wednesday they urged President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to direct Liberian authorities to investigate the threats and guarantee the reporter’s safety. Sirleaf is Africa’s first and only female head of state and won a Nobel Peace Prize for her work on women’s rights.
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