(MISA/IFEX) – The following is a joint MISA-MFWA alert: The Ministry of Local Government (ministère de l’Administration du Territoire et de la Décentralisation, MATD) has banned the sale of the 9 to 15 May 2004 edition (issue 2261) of the news weekly “Jeune Afrique L’Intelligent”. This is the second time in the last two weeks […]
(MISA/IFEX) – The following is a joint MISA-MFWA alert:
The Ministry of Local Government (ministère de l’Administration du Territoire et de la Décentralisation, MATD) has banned the sale of the 9 to 15 May 2004 edition (issue 2261) of the news weekly “Jeune Afrique L’Intelligent”. This is the second time in the last two weeks that an edition of the newspaper has been prevented from going on sale.
According to MFWA-Guinea, the MATD was displeased with an article entitled, “Searching desperately for François Fall”, published on page 12 of the paper.
The article, written by “Jeune Afrique L’Intelligent” staff writer Cheick Yerim Seck, referred to measures which it claimed President Lansana Conté used to persuade François Lonceny Fall to rescind his decision to resign from his position as prime minister. Barely two months after he was appointed prime minister on 23 February, Fall announced his resignation from General Conté’s government at a 27 April news conference in Paris, France. He insinuated that he had had personal differences with the president and chose to announce his resignation while outside the country because he feared reprisals from the government.
This is the second time in two weeks that the MATD has prevented “Jeune Afrique L’Intelligent” from being distributed in Guinea. Issue 2260 of the paper (dated 2 to 8 May) remains in the MATD’s possession. The ministry prevented circulation of the previous issue for similar reasons.
