(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to the minister of the interior, General Sizing Walla, RSF asked for an explanation regarding the police’s search for journalist Augustin Amégah. “The police’s methods are simply scandalous. No warrant was presented during the search of the Press Centre, and the motive behind the search for Augustin Amégah is still […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to the minister of the interior, General Sizing Walla, RSF asked for an explanation regarding the police’s search for journalist Augustin Amégah. “The police’s methods are simply scandalous. No warrant was presented during the search of the Press Centre, and the motive behind the search for Augustin Amégah is still unknown. The right to be informed of the nature of the crime for which one is blamed constitutes a basic right that is not at all respected in Togo,” stated Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general. “Should we assume that the motive is tied to the professional activities of Augustin Amégah, a journalist who is close to the opposition?” asked Ménard. RSF recalled that the pressure and obstacles against the press, especially against the press close to the opposition, has considerably increased in recent years in Togo.
According to information collected by RSF, on the morning of 7 December 2001, about fifteen plainclothes police officers raided the Press Centre in Lomé, where journalists from about thirty media outlets were attending a training workshop on electoral issues. The police were looking for Amégah, publication director of the weekly “Le Reporter des temps nouveaux”, a newspaper that is close to the opposition. The police offered no explanation for their search. They carried out an identity check, preventing journalists from leaving the Press Centre for two hours, but their hunt for Amégah was unsuccessful.
Furthermore, RSF recalls that on 4 December, copies of the weekly “Le Regard” were seized by order of the Ministry of the Interior. The newspaper is also close to the opposition. Publication director Mikaïla Saibou received no official explanation for the seizure. The minister of the interior accused the publication director of having described the national army as “putschist.” In a 4 December article, the newspaper reported on the testimony of a deputy officer from former prime minister Joseph Kokou Koffigoh’s guard concerning the December 1991 attack on the Prime Minister’s Office by national army soldiers.
