(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has urged Togo’s presidential candidates to appeal to their supporters not to use violence against journalists after a crew from the state-owned television station TVT was attacked and threatened during a rally by the opposition Union of Forces for Change (UFC) on 26 March 2005. Demonstrators were demanding the postponement of the […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has urged Togo’s presidential candidates to appeal to their supporters not to use violence against journalists after a crew from the state-owned television station TVT was attacked and threatened during a rally by the opposition Union of Forces for Change (UFC) on 26 March 2005. Demonstrators were demanding the postponement of the 24 April presidential election.
“The violence against the TVT crew is all the more worrying as it comes amid a series of threats against journalists accused of bias in an extremely tense political context. Attacks against the press are often a harbinger of greater violence to come, so we solemnly call on all four presidential candidates, regardless of their political sensibilities, to make a public appeal to their supporters not to attack the press,” RSF said, adding that “such an initiative seems essential in order to ensure a calm election campaign.”
The TVT crew arrived in a vehicle bearing the station’s logo at the site of the UFC rally, in the Lomé district of Bê-Château, on the morning of 26 March. Reporter Bangna Kondor, camera operator Gilles Obnassé and soundman Adjété Sossou were accosted and insulted on their arrival by a group of youths who told them they could not cover the demonstration.
The crew consulted the UFC head of security, Evans Welbeck, who assured them they could stay and do their work. But midway through the rally, the crew was attacked by a group of “over-excited youths” who broke the rear window of their vehicle and threatened to kill them. At this point, UFC security officers suggested they leave the scene in light of the crowd’s mood.
Reached by RSF, UFC Secretary-General Jean-Pierre Fabre said his party “completely disassociates itself from this violence” and has adopted “measures to ensure that such incidents are not repeated.”
The attack comes amid an increasingly alarming climate of intimidation for many journalists, who have been accused of either being agents for the ruling Rally for the Togolese People (RPT) or opposition spokesmen. In addition to TVT journalists, accused by the opposition of bias, some foreign correspondents – especially those who are white, who are usually assumed rightly or wrongly to be French – have been the target of verbal attacks in recent weeks by demonstrators critical of France’s policies towards Togo.
