(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to the minister of the interior and security, General Sising Walla, RSF protested the seizure of copies of the weekly “Le Regard”, a newspaper which has close ties to the opposition. The organisation asked that the seizure of newspapers be stopped. Recalling that copies of six different newspapers were seized […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to the minister of the interior and security, General Sising Walla, RSF protested the seizure of copies of the weekly “Le Regard”, a newspaper which has close ties to the opposition. The organisation asked that the seizure of newspapers be stopped. Recalling that copies of six different newspapers were seized by the authorities during 2000, RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard urged the minister to “respect the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by Togo, Article 19 of which guarantees ‘freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds’.”
According to information collected by RSF, on 27 March 2001, police officers seized an unspecified number of issues of the weekly “Le Regard” from newspaper vendors in Lomé. The newspaper’s director claimed that none of the 3,500 copies put on the market were returned. General Walla, who ordered the seizure, allegedly reproaches the newspaper for publishing an article titled “Lomé refuses the European Union’s financial support for legislative elections” – scheduled for October – which he perceives as slanderous. According to “Le Regard”, the government seeks to “avoid controls by the EU, which would not provide financial support for elections which are turned into a ‘hold up’.” General Walla allegedly stated that “the newspaper has to present proof” to confirm the information contained in the article.
The government’s decision is rooted in the new Press Code, which includes the provision that “in the context of his police powers”, the minister of the interior and security can “order the seizure of copies of any publication whose contents constitute a violation of the press law”.
Following the introduction of this amendment, six newspapers were seized during 2000. On 2 August, “Le Combat du Peuple”, an opposition weekly, lodged a complaint with the Supreme Court’s Administrative Chamber against the minister of the interior, for “abuse of power”. As of 1 January, there was no decision on the compaint. On 7 August, the Togolese Association of Private Press Publishers (Association togolaise des éditeurs de presse privée, ATEPP) appealed for financial and moral support for the private press, which, according to the association, is “the victim of a totalitarian drift by the current powers.”
