**Updates IFEX alert of 16 May 2000** (CPJ/IFEX) – In a 19 May 2000 letter to President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, CPJ stated that it is deeply disturbed by recent serious press freedom violations in Sierra Leone. It is particularly concerned about the continued illegal detention of Abdoul Kouyateh, acting editor of the private Freetown weekly […]
**Updates IFEX alert of 16 May 2000**
(CPJ/IFEX) – In a 19 May 2000 letter to President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, CPJ stated that it is deeply disturbed by recent serious press freedom violations in Sierra Leone. It is particularly concerned about the continued illegal detention of Abdoul Kouyateh, acting editor of the private Freetown weekly “Wisdom Newspaper”.
Officers from the Criminal Investigation Department arrested Kouyateh at his newspaper’s office on 11 May and drove him to the central police station in Freetown. He remained there as of 19 May, according to his colleagues. Kouyateh was arrested for endangering state security by requesting an interview with Foday Sankoh, leader of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), who continues to hold a cabinet post in the government. Kouyateh has now been detained without formal charges for longer than the seventy-two hour limit imposed by the Constitution.
According to journalists in Freetown, Kouyateh contacted Sankoh in December 1999 while investigating allegations that the government had hired mercenaries from the United Liberia Independent Movement (ULIMO) to destabilize the regime of Charles Taylor, Liberia’s president.
Kouyateh never published the results of his investigation. According to his colleagues at “Wisdom Newspaper”, he dropped the story because it proved to have no substance. Police arrested the journalist on 11 May, however, because his name appeared on a piece of paper found in the ruins of Sankoh’s Freetown residence. Sankoh’s home was looted on 8 May by irate citizens protesting the resumption of hostilities by RUF forces, who had kidnapped nearly 500 United Nations peacekeeping forces on 3 May. The paper appeared to be a note written to Sankoh by his secretary, stating that Kouyateh had asked for an interview, CPJ sources say.
CPJ noted that Sierra Leone has become the most dangerous country in the world for journalists. Sankoh, who is in the custody of British forces after being detained on 17 May by members of a pro-government militia, remained a member of the administration at the time of this writing.
Sankoh’s RUF rebels are responsible for the assassination of at least eleven journalists since the civil war broke out in 1991. In all, thirteen journalists have been murdered in Sierra Leone since 1991, simply because they showed their professional commitment to report the news in the face of tremendous odds.
The most recent victim was Saoman Conteh, a journalist with the independent weekly “New Tablet”, who was shot on 8 May by a member of the RUF while covering the demonstration outside Sankoh’s residence. Sankoh’s bodyguards opened fire on the crowd of demonstrators and killed at least nineteen people, several news organizations reported. Conteh, who was shot in the chest and the leg, fell on the ground and was suffocated by the stampede of people fleeing the gunshots. His body remained on the street for more than twenty-four hours before he was taken to Connaught Hospital in Freetown, where doctors pronounced him dead (see IFEX alert of 12 May 2000).
That same day, during the same demonstration, RUF members assaulted Corinna Schuler, a journalist with the U.S. daily “Christian Science Monitor”, according to local and international news reports. She was stopped by RUF soldiers outside their leader’s house and threatened with death. An RUF member reportedly bit her arm and asked for money before she was released.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to the president:
– stating that despite the state of emergency caused by the resumption of hostilities between the RUF and the alliance of UN forces and soldiers loyal to the government, the right of journalists to gather information from all sources should not, under any circumstances, be perceived as a crime
– respectfully reminding him that Section 25 of Sierra Leone’s 1991 Constitution provides that “except with his own consent, no person shall be hindered in the enjoyment of his freedom of expression, including the freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference with his correspondence”
– stating that a free and functioning press is essential for the resolution of civil conflict, and that if journalists in Sierra Leone are not free to cover issues relating to the civil war, then the citizens of Sierra Leone will be unable to participate in national reconciliation
– noting that while the press, unlike other institutions, can function independently of the state and therefore can operate effectively even in a society that is still engaged in a violent conflict, creating minimum conditions of safety for the press requires that all parties to the conflict refrain from interfering with or inhibiting the work of journalists
– urging him to ensure that Abdoul Kouyateh of the “Wisdom Newspaper” is immediately and unconditionally released from illegal detention, and that all those who deliberately kill or assault journalists are brought to justice
– urging him to demonstrate his commitment to press freedom by publicly affirming the right of all journalists in Sierra Leone to work freely and without government interference, in accordance with Section 11 of the 1991 Constitution, which clearly states that “the press, radio and television and other agencies of the mass media shall at all times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in this Constitution and highlight the responsibility and accountability of the Government to the people”
Appeals To
APPEALS TO:
Ahmed Tejan Kabbah
President
State House
Freetown
Sierra Leone
Fax: + 232 22 225 615
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
For further information, contact Yves Sorokobi at CPJ, 330 Seventh Ave., New York, NY 10001, U.S.A., tel: +1 212 465 1004, fax: +1 212 465 9568, e-mail: africa@cpj.org, ysorokobi@cpj.org, Internet: http://www.cpj.org
