(MFWA/IFEX) – On 20 December 2005, the Magistrate Court in Agadez, a town about 1000 km from Niamey, sentenced Hamed Assaleh Raliou, a regional correspondent of Radio France International (RFI), to an eight-month suspended prison term for allegedly defaming Yahya Yandaka, the governor of the region. The correspondent was also fined 200,000 CFA francs (approximately […]
(MFWA/IFEX) – On 20 December 2005, the Magistrate Court in Agadez, a town about 1000 km from Niamey, sentenced Hamed Assaleh Raliou, a regional correspondent of Radio France International (RFI), to an eight-month suspended prison term for allegedly defaming Yahya Yandaka, the governor of the region.
The correspondent was also fined 200,000 CFA francs (approximately US$356) in addition to 1 CFA franc (less than US$ 1) in damages to the governor.
According to a Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) Niger source, Raliou, also Director of independent radio station SAHARA FM, was responsible for the broadcast of a series of news items on RFI and SAHARA FM accusing the governor of diverting food aid meant for hunger-stricken communities in Niger.
The source said that at the onset of the famine in Niger early this year, several newspapers accused Yandaka of diverting food supplies.
On 27 September 2005 Abdoulaye Harouna, editor in chief of the independent weekly, “Echo Express” was also sentenced to a 4-month prison term for defaming the same governor.
An ad hoc committee set up by the government to coordinate and supervise the distribution of the food aid had published a report accusing the governor of mismanagement, subsequently asking him to return 137 sacks of date fruits, while calling on the government to sanction him.
