**Updates IFEX alert of 7 December 1999** (RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Security Minister Condé Kouressy, RSF has protested the seizure of all the copies of the private weekly “L’Indépendant” in Conakry. The organisation urged the minister to ensure that the seized newspapers are returned to their owner, and to see to it that […]
**Updates IFEX alert of 7 December 1999**
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Security Minister Condé Kouressy, RSF has protested the seizure of all the copies of the private weekly “L’Indépendant” in Conakry. The organisation urged the minister to ensure that the seized newspapers are returned to their owner, and to see to it that such a situation is avoided in the future. RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard added: “We recall that Guinea has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 19 of which guarantees ‘freedom to … impart information and ideas of all kinds”.
According to RSF’s information, on 9 December 1999, the police stopped a minibus which was preparing to leave the printing house to take copies of “L’Indépendant” to distributors. All the copies of the 9 December edition of the newspaper were seized. On 7 December, the police had forced the weekly newspaper’s personnel to vacate their offices before closing them. Since that time, journalists had to write their articles at their residences or in public areas. On 4 December, Aboubacar Sylla, the publication’s director, was detained for two days at the police station. Certain observers have suggested that the journalist’s arrest and seizure of the newspaper are linked to “L’Indépendant”‘s publication of a “report on corruption which seriously implicates the government of Guinea.”
