**Updates IFEX alerts of 10 December and 7 December 1999** (RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Security Minister Condé Kouressy, RSF has protested the arrest of Saliou Samb, editor-in-chief of the newspaper “L’Indépendant Plus”, in Conakry. RSF asked the minister for an explanation for this detention. The organisation also asked for the journalist’s immediate release […]
**Updates IFEX alerts of 10 December and 7 December 1999**
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Security Minister Condé Kouressy, RSF has protested the arrest of Saliou Samb, editor-in-chief of the newspaper “L’Indépendant Plus”, in Conakry. RSF asked the minister for an explanation for this detention. The organisation also asked for the journalist’s immediate release should his arrest be linked to his professional activities. In addition, RSF asked the minister to ensure that journalists of the Indépendant press group be permitted to carry out their work with complete freedom. RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard added: “We remind you that Guinea has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 19 of which guarantees freedom of expression.”
According to RSF’s information, on 15 December 1999, the editor-in-chief of the weekly “L’Indépendant Plus” was arrested by police in Conakry. This arrest, the motive for which remains unclear, is the latest in a series of legal difficulties which have hit the press group since the publication, in early December, of an investigation on corruption which implicated the Guinean government. On 4 December, Aboubacar Sylla, owner of the weeklies “L’Indépendant” and “L’Indépendant Plus”, was arrested by twelve police officers. He was released two days later. On 7 December, the police forced the personnel of the two publications to vacate their offices and subsequently closed them. Two days later, the police seized all the copies of “L’Indépendant”.
