(MFWA/IFEX) – On 9 January 2007, Radio Victoire, a privately-owned FM radio station in Lome, was suspended for 15 days by the media regulator Haute Autorité de l’Audiovisuel de la Communication (HAAC) for alleged unprofessional conduct. The radio station is scheduled to resume broadcasting on 23 January. According to HAAC, the station “chose not to […]
(MFWA/IFEX) – On 9 January 2007, Radio Victoire, a privately-owned FM radio station in Lome, was suspended for 15 days by the media regulator Haute Autorité de l’Audiovisuel de la Communication (HAAC) for alleged unprofessional conduct.
The radio station is scheduled to resume broadcasting on 23 January. According to HAAC, the station “chose not to respect the advice and opinion of the media regulator” regarding the contents of the programme after “several recommendations and warnings”.
However, the Radio Victoire management has rejected the HAAC’s claim, arguing that the real reason for the suspension was because they failed to comply with the HAAC’s instruction to ban Jacques Roux, a foreign journalist, from participating in a radio discussion on a sports programme, “Fou de foot”.
MFWA’s correspondent reported that Roux has been continuously criticizing the former president of the Togolese Confederation of Football (FTF), Rock Balakiyem Gnassingbé, who is the brother of President Faure Gnassingbé.
The MFWA is concerned about interference in editorial decisions of the radio station as it undermines the independence of the media. Such acts lead to, and may constitute, censorship.
The MFWA urges the HAAC to lift the suspension promptly and unconditionally, and to desist from such acts, especially in a country that is still struggling very hard to end decades of the suppression of free expression.
