(JED/IFEX) – On 23 August 2005, Moussa Mahamat Dago, president of the High Council of Communication (Haut conseil de la communication, HCC), the body that regulates Chad’s media, authorised the resumption of broadcasts by Radio Brakoss, a community station based in Moïssala, a village about 700 km from the capital, N’Djamena. The decision to reopen […]
(JED/IFEX) – On 23 August 2005, Moussa Mahamat Dago, president of the High Council of Communication (Haut conseil de la communication, HCC), the body that regulates Chad’s media, authorised the resumption of broadcasts by Radio Brakoss, a community station based in Moïssala, a village about 700 km from the capital, N’Djamena.
The decision to reopen Radio Brakoss is accompanied by one condition: submission of a list of members of the station’s management committee to the HCC within 45 days.
During its latest mission to N’Djamena from 11 to 18 August, JED met with Dago, who promised to reopen the station, which is the only media outlet for the entire village of Moïssala.
While JED believes Radio Brakoss’s suspension was entirely unjustified, it welcomes the HCC’s decision and notes that four journalists remain in prison after receiving heavy sentences. JED calls on the Chadian authorities, particularly President Idriss Déby, to do everything possible to ensure the release of Sy Koumbo, Samory Ngaradoumbé, Michel Didama and Al Haj Ngarondé Djarma (see IFEX alerts of 16, 15 and 9 August, 19, 7 and 6 July and 23 June 2005).
On 19 May 2005, Radio Brakoss was temporarily suspended by the HCC, which accused the station of “recurring conflicts with the administrative, military and traditional authorities as well as dysfunction and a lack of supervision of its personnel.”
