Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 18:41:49 +0000 (GMT)
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Subject: MEDIA: IRIN News Briefs  [2000523]
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MEDIA: IRIN News Briefs, 22 May 2000

CONTENTS:

SIERRA LEONE: CPJ letter to Kabbah
WEST AFRICA: Magazine dedicated to murdered journalists
TOGO: Newspaper publisher imprisoned three months for libel
COTE D'IVOIRE: Soldiers beat up journalists
MAURITANIA: Weekly censured

SIERRA LEONE: CPJ letter to Kabbah

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) sent a letter on Friday to
President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah informing him of press freedom violations and
in particular the detention of a journalist by Sierra Leonean authorities.

Abdoul Kouyateh, acting editor of the private Freetown weekly 'Wisdom
Newspaper', was detained by officers from the Criminal Investigation
Department on 11 May and taken to the the central police station in
Freetown, Ann Cooper, executive director of CPJ, said in the letter.

He is being held for "endangering state security" by requesting an
interview with the leader of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), Foday
Sankoh, currently being held by the Sierra Leone police in an undisclosed
location. Kouyateh had been detained without formal charges for longer
than the 72-hour limit imposed by the constitution, CPJ said.

WEST AFRICA: Magazine dedicated to murdered journalists

The Media Foundation for West Africa launched on 16 May a magazine
dedicated to the memory of two murdered investigative journalists, Dele
Giwa and Norbert Zongo, AFP reported. Giwa, a Nigerian, was killed by a
letter bomb in 1986. Zongo, from Burkina Faso, was killed in December
1998.

The magazine, titled 'Zongo Giwa', is edited by the director of the School
of Communication Studies in Ghana, Professor Kwame Karikari. It will
include articles on issues such as freedom of expression and the rights of
journalists, as well as chronicles of court cases against journalists, AFP
reported Karikari as saying.

TOGO: Newspaper publisher imprisoned three months for libel

Lome's Magistrate Court has sentenced Hippolyte Agbo, the publisher of a
local newspaper, to three months in prison and a fine of CFA 1,000,000
(about US $1,500) for printing false news in his newspaper, `L'exile'.

Radio Togo reported on 15 May that the court also ordered Agbo - whose
paper had reported that the head of state's daughter had died in an
accident - to pay token damages to the plaintiff and ordered the
destruction of the newspapers, seized by the authorities.

COTE D'IVOIRE: Soldiers beat up journalists

Men in military uniform seized and beat up the publisher of an Abidjan
newspaper, `La Reference' and three of his staff on 16 May, local media
reported.

The semi-official `Fraternite-Matin' said the action was in apparent
"punishment for an article `La Reference' published the week before. The
daily had claimed that trips the president's wife made to various parts of
the country cost 100 million CFA francs each. In another article, it said
that Guei's government was weak and could easily be overthrown.

Another daily, `Le Jour', named the victims as: Patrice Pohe, the
publisher; Eugene Kanga De Bekano, a copy editor; culture editor
Jean-Claude Ragazza and photographer Constance Nizako. They were released
after their ordeal.

The Paris-based media watchdog Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) complained
on 17 May in a letter to the Ivoirian President, General Robert Guei,
about the beating of the journalists and "the degradation of freedom of
the press in Cote 'Ivoire".

The Ivorian League of Human Rights, LIDDHO, said it would investigate the
incident.

MAURITANIA: Weekly censured

The latest edition of the Mauritanian weekly 'Nouakchott-Infos' has been
censured by the Mauritanian authorities, AFP reports its management as
announcing on Sunday. AFP said that according to the weekly's publisher,
Chiekh Ould Nenni, the authorities were unhappy at a report on alleged
corruption at the African Development Bank (ADB). The report criticised
the Mauritanian government for supporting ADB President Omar Kabbaj of
Morocco for political reasons, AFP reported.

[ENDS]

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