Mali: Journalists asks for liberation of peers from jail
TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY ANNE LE COZ --- Director of radio AADAR-Koima programmes Souleima Maiga holds munitons found in Gao on February 28, 2013. Gao, the main town in northern Mali, which is also the most resilient to the law imposed for ten months by Tuareg rebels and then by armed Islamists, is supported by a handful of Radio presenters, technicians and managers. The trouble began at the end of March for community radio AADAR-Koima when Tuareg rebels of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) invaded the city. By the end of June, under the domination of Mujao (Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa), "we had to stop the music and broadcast messages calling for adherence to religious movements," said Maiga. AFP PHOTO /JOEL SAGET (Photo credit should read JOEL SAGET/AFP via Getty Images)
The lawyers of journalist Chahana Takiou have asked for a provisional liberation of their client. According to RFI on the 23rd of June, the director of the Malian newspaper 22 Septembre, who was imprisoned on June 8th for having called out the military government for cracking down on the free press, has health issues that could justify an exemption from jail.
A day after Takiou’s arrest, another one of his colleagues, the director of the Malian newspaper Abdrahamane Keita, was also arrested. He had deplored the state of the war in Kidal, a city currently controlled by jihadists of the Al Qaeda-affiliated group JNIM. His lawyers have not asked for his liberation yet, as people close to the journalist explain that, without health conditions, and even with them, the chances of being temporarily released are minor.
The 2 journalists have been charged with harming the reputation of the state and regionalist offences, all under the umbrella of cyber-criminality. The French NGO RSF has denounced the instrumentalisation of cyber-criminality laws, leading to the criminalisation of speech.
Mali has dropped 20 places in the World Press Freedom Index made by Reporters Without Borders, going from the 99th to the 121st spot in only 6 years.
The Malian “Maison de la presse”, an organisation that ties together all other groups and organisations in the Malian media landscape, has announced that its main goal is to get the two journalists liberated, as well as a third colleague, Youssouf Sissoko, director of the media L’Alternance.
He was sentenced to two years in prison last March for an article that questioned declarations by Abdourahamane Tiani, leader of the military junta, when he accused the Presidents of France, Benin and the Ivory Coast of being complicit in an attack orchestrated by terrorists in Niamey.
The Maison de la presse, somewhat close to the transitional military government, has declared being favorable to putting forward institutional dialogue to get the liberation of its journalists. One member of the organisation has declared that discussions are taking place.
RFI, Maghrebi.org
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