(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has expressed relief at the 19 February 2005 release of newspaper editor Mohamed Lamine Diallo, known by his pen name Benn Pépito. Pépito was secretly detained for three days in connection with his reporting on an opposition leader wanted by the authorities. “We welcome Benn Pépito’s release but we continue to be […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has expressed relief at the 19 February 2005 release of newspaper editor Mohamed Lamine Diallo, known by his pen name Benn Pépito. Pépito was secretly detained for three days in connection with his reporting on an opposition leader wanted by the authorities.
“We welcome Benn Pépito’s release but we continue to be concerned about violations of the confidentiality of journalists’ sources in Guinea,” RSF said. “Even when state security is involved, political coverage can never justify secretly detaining a journalist.”
The news agency Agence France-Presse quoted Pépito as saying after his release that all the questions put to him while he was detained concerned opposition politician Antoine Soromou, who has apparently been sought by the authorities since an abortive attack last month on President Lansana Conté’s motorcade.
The release of Pépito, editor of the independent weekly “La Lance”, was reportedly decided at a meeting between the president and Prime Minister Cellou Dalein Diallo. The prime minister met immediately afterwards with the ministers of territorial administration, justice and security.
On 19 February, the director of security and the state prosecutor told a delegation of journalists that they were “handing over” Pépito and that they would have done so long before if “he had agreed to cooperate.”
Prior to his release, local press associations had planned a campaign against Security Minister Moussa Sampil, during which all the weekly newspapers would display a full-page photo of the minister with the monicker, “enemy of journalists”. RSF backed the initiative.
