(MFWA/IFEX) – Journalists from five international media organizations and a local counterpart were on 20 February 2007 chased out of a meeting by the Battalion Autonome de la Securite Presidentielle (BASP), guards of General Lansana Conte. Two of the guards threatened the journalists with guns. The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) correspondent reported that […]
(MFWA/IFEX) – Journalists from five international media organizations and a local counterpart were on 20 February 2007 chased out of a meeting by the Battalion Autonome de la Securite Presidentielle (BASP), guards of General Lansana Conte.
Two of the guards threatened the journalists with guns.
The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) correspondent reported that the security men stationed at the main entrance of the Presidential Palace, where the meeting was being held, were ordered by the BASP not to allow the vehicle carrying the journalists’ entry into the premises.
The journalists had gone to cover a meeting between President Conte and two other neighbouring presidents – President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah and President Ellen Sirleaf Johnson – of Sierra Leone and of Liberia respectively, on the ongoing industrial strike in the country.
The journalists were from the BBC, RFI, VOA, AFP, France 24 and a local journalist from privately-owned “Le Lynx-La Lance” newspaper.
The correspondent said only journalists from the state-owned media were allowed to cover the meeting.
At the airport in Conakry, the foreign journalists and photographers were again prevented from covering the departure of the two presidents.
