(CPJ/IFEX) – At approximately 6:00 p.m. (local time) on 8 December 1998, Sulaiman Momodu, a reporter with the independent “Concord Times” newspaper and a stringer for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), was arrested by plain clothes detectives at his residence in Freetown and transported to the Criminal Investigation Department. **New case and update to IFEX […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – At approximately 6:00 p.m. (local time) on 8 December 1998,
Sulaiman Momodu, a reporter with the independent “Concord Times” newspaper
and a stringer for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), was arrested
by plain clothes detectives at his residence in Freetown and transported to
the Criminal Investigation Department.
**New case and update to IFEX alert of 9 December**
At a 2:00 p.m. (local time) press briefing held at the Wilberforce Barracks
on 9 December, Information Minister Julius Spencer announced that Momodu,
Winston Ojukutu Macaulley, and Sylvester Rogers (two BBC reporters who were
also arrested the
same day) have been arrested on charges of “false reporting” and “reporting
news on the war without clearing their stories in advance with the West
African Peacekeeping Forces (ECOMOG).”
CPJ sources report that the attorney general’s office has not completed the
paperwork on the arrests, and it is expected that the journalists will
appear in court on 10 December. Authorities have asked the journalists to
prepare their statements, and have refused visitation privileges to the
journalists’ colleagues.
