(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ has protested in the strongest terms against the continued detention of Raphael Lakpe and Jean Khalil Sylla, the publisher and reporter, respectively, at the independent daily newspaper “Le Populaire”. **Updates IFEX alerts of 27 August, 30 June, 10 June, 4 June and 2 June 1999** In the early hours of 28 April […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ has protested in the strongest terms against the continued
detention of Raphael Lakpe and Jean Khalil Sylla, the publisher and
reporter, respectively, at the independent daily newspaper “Le Populaire”.
**Updates IFEX alerts of 27 August, 30 June, 10 June, 4 June and 2 June
1999**
In the early hours of 28 April 1999, agents from the Territorial
Surveillance Division (DST) arrested veteran journalist Lakpe at his Abidjan
residence. Lakpe’s arrest resulted from an article by Sylla published in “Le
Populaire” that same morning, entitled “One Student Killed, Four Wounded.”
According to the report, on the night of 27 April police officers beat a
student to death on a university campus in Port-Bouet, a suburb of Abidjan.
The police apparently met with resistance when they attempted to stop a
spontaneous demonstration of students protesting against the belated payment
of their bursaries.
The student association FESCI denied the newspaper’s allegations,
emphasizing that the student was indeed badly injured but had survived the
beating. “Le Populaire” acknowledged its mistake and published a correction
the next day. But law enforcement officers continued their investigation. On
9 June they arrested Sylla.
Lakpe and Sylla are currently being held at Abidjan’s Arrests and
Corrections House (MACA), accused of distributing and disclosing false news
and disturbing public order.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to the president:
these journalists to be detained without charge for up to four months,
renewable once at the prosecutor’s request
document of July 14, 1992, in which the United Nations High Commissioner for
Human Rights stressed that detention, as a sanction for expressing an
opinion, constitutes one of the most reprehensible means of imposing silence
gross violation of the internationally recognized right of journalists to
seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and Article 9 of the African Charter
of Human and People’s Rights, to all of which, His Excellency should be
respectfully reminded, Côte d’Ivoire is a signatory
Sylla will negatively affect press freedom in Côte d’Ivoire, which had
improved considerably after the establishment in 1991 of the National
Council on Audiovisual Communication to regulate access to and distribution
of information in a liberal and democratic spirit
unconditionally released
Appeals To
President Henri Konan Bedie
La Presidence
Boulevard Clozel
Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire
Fax: +225 314 540
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
