Detained in Nigeria, now back home
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- September
- 10
For today’s Journal News I wrote about a deportation that was about as happy as a deportation can be. Andrew Berends, a documentary filmmaker, spent 10 days being interrogated and detained by t
he Nigerian security forces while working there. Under pressure from the U.S. State Department, Senators Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer and others, the Nigerian government freed him yesterday and deported him back to the United States, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Berends grew up in Hastings and lives in Brooklyn. Click here for a photo just posted of him “back on U.S. soil.”
Nigerian authorities accused him of spying, but he is among many journalists to be harassed and detained in the oil-rich, conflict-ridden Niger Delta region. His departure yesterday was met with relief by CPJ and Reporters Without Borders. His friends and colleagues are tracking the developments here. A translator for Berends and a local businessman were also interrogated and are due to report back to the authorities.
The New York Times quoted Berends as saying, before he boarded the outbound plane: “It’s a travesty, because I love Nigeria.â€
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, September 10th, 2008 at 2:23 pm by Leah Rae.
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[...] Delta, and became the latest journalist to be detained by government security forces and eventually deported. The Hastings High School grad is back home in Brooklyn [...]