Cartoon Rage still smoldering in…Kenya. “One dead and three injured in raid on christian radio,” from Reporters Without Borders, with thanks to Olivia:
Reporters Without Borders expressed shock and dismay after a brutal raid on a Christian radio station in Nairobi, Radio Hope, left one person dead and three injured overnight on 12 May 2006.
The editorial management of the Pentacostal Church-owned radio blamed the raid on Muslim extremists. It immediately followed a Swahili-language broadcast entitled “Jesus is the way”, advocating conversion of Muslims to Christianity.
Witnesses, cited by Agence France-Presse (AFP) said the attack on Radio Hope was carried out by a gang of about nine. Two of them opened fire on a night guard, killing him instantly and injuring another member of the security staff and a presenter before setting fire to the studios by throwing petrol bombs and taking the station off air.
A passer-by was also injured as the band of attackers fled after the raid.
Reporters Without Borders said it feared the media was suffering from still smouldering inter-community tensions and called on the government to be vigilant.
“The episode of the cartoons of the prophet Mohammed provoked inter-community clashes last February,” it said. “The attack on Radio Hope demonstrates that the tensions are far from calmed down and that the media can be as much the target as the instrument of religious proselytism.”