(RSF/IFEX) – Gaël Mocaer, a freelance filmmaker on assignment for the Radio France Outremer (RFO) network, was released on 23 October 2002, in the afternoon. He was detained for six days at the headquarters of the counter-espionage services (Direction de surveillance du territoire, DST) in Abidjan. RSF welcomed Mocaer’s release and again urged the Côte […]
(RSF/IFEX) – Gaël Mocaer, a freelance filmmaker on assignment for the Radio France Outremer (RFO) network, was released on 23 October 2002, in the afternoon. He was detained for six days at the headquarters of the counter-espionage services (Direction de surveillance du territoire, DST) in Abidjan. RSF welcomed Mocaer’s release and again urged the Côte d’Ivoire authorities to guarantee the safety of local and foreign journalists working in the country.
The organisation had called for the filmmaker’s release on 22 October. Contacted by RSF, the minister of communications denied any knowledge of the case. No explanation was provided following Mocaer’s release, and he was not charged. Upon his release, he immediately boarded a plane to Paris.
An independent filmmaker of French nationality, Mocaer was arrested at his hotel by DST agents on 17 October. No one had been allowed to visit him since his arrest. The filmmaker was in the country to produce a documentary about the situation in Côte d’Ivoire on behalf of RFO and the Béta Productions company.
Foreign journalists and camera operators have been particularly at risk since the failed coup d’état on 19 September. Several have been assaulted or threatened and video cameras have been seized.
