(CPJ/IFEX) – On 8 December 1998, at approximately 5:00 p.m. (local time), two plain clothes officers of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) arrested Winston Ojukutu Macaulley, Freetown correspondent for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), at the Sierra Leone Telecommunications Center in Freetown. The journalist was taken to the CID headquarters, where he is currently being […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – On 8 December 1998, at approximately 5:00 p.m. (local time),
two plain clothes officers of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID)
arrested Winston Ojukutu Macaulley, Freetown correspondent for the British
Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), at the Sierra Leone Telecommunications
Center in Freetown. The journalist was taken to the CID headquarters, where
he is currently being held in a cell with detainees for criminal offenses.
Macaulley has not been charged, and according to the law, may be held for
seventy two hours without charge.
Information Minister Julius Spencer ordered the arrest following Macaulley’s
8 December report that 8,000 refugeees, fleeing heavy fighting, were headed
toward Freetown on the highway from the northern part of the interior.
According to CPJ sources, President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, who is currently in
The Gambia, told Spencer to order the arrest.
On the same day, Sylvester Rogers, the Makeni stringer for the BBC, was
arrested by police following the journalist’s 8 December report that a
soldier of the West African Peacekeeping Forces (ECOMOG) had been killed by
rebels. It is believed that the journalist is being held in Makeni because
fighting between ECOMOG and rebel forces has reportedly cut off roads to
Freetown. CPJ sources report that the journalist may have been arrested
under emergency laws requiring journalists to clear reports pertaining to
the conflict with ECOMOG officials.
Another BBC correspondent, Lance Fofie, went into hiding on 8 December after
being informed that he too was being sought by police. At this time, it is
unclear why police are searching for Fofie.
It is feared that David Tam-Baryoh, the secretary general of the Sierra
Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) and publisher of the independent
newspaper “Punch”, may also be arrested because Macaulley’s 8 December BBC
broadcast cited a quote by Tam-Baryoh published in a 2 December article in
the independent newspaper “Awoko”.
The comment attributed to Tam-Baryoh was his quote of Paramount Chief N’Fat,
a traditional tribal chief of the Kambia district, who stated that “the head
of state must talk peace with the rebels in order to stop the civilian
suffering.” N’Fat made the comment at the National Consultative Conference,
organized by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), held in the
northern region of the country on 30 November.
