(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Interior Minister General Sizing Walla, RSF protested the arrest of Lucien Messan, editorial director of the weekly “Le Combat du peuple”. RSF asked the minister to withdraw his complaint and refer the matter to the appropriate authorities so that the journalist is released immediately. “The motive for his arrest […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Interior Minister General Sizing Walla, RSF protested the arrest of Lucien Messan, editorial director of the weekly “Le Combat du peuple”. RSF asked the minister to withdraw his complaint and refer the matter to the appropriate authorities so that the journalist is released immediately. “The motive for his arrest is only a pretext to silence one of the most critical voices within the opposition press,” stated Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general. “The Togolese authorities must stop attacking journalists from the private press, notably those who question the policies of President Gnassingbé Eyadéma,” added the secretary-general.
According to information obtained by RSF, on 23 May 2001 Messan presented himself to the police in response to a summons. He was informed that a complaint had been lodged against him for “falsehood and the use of falsehood” by the Interior Minister, and the journalist was immediately transferred to Lomé civil prison. He was charged with having affixed his signature at the bottom of a communiqué from the Togolese Private Press Publishers Association (Association togolaise des éditeurs de la presse privée, ATEPP). In fact, the publication director of “Le Combat du Peuple” is Lucien Messan’s son, Messan S. Junior. It is the latter who is authorised to sign the ATEPP’s documents. The communiqué denounced statements by the Togolose prime minister, according to which “publication directors were unanimous in affirming that there have never been hundreds of deaths in Togo.” The ATEPP accused the government of “seeking to use the private press.”
In August 2000, Lucien Messan lodged a complaint against the Interior Minister for “abuses of power,” following repeated seizures of copies of “Le Combat du peuple” by the police (see IFEX alerts of 1 August and 19 July 2000).
Messan, 55 years of age, is the most senior figure in the Togolese private press. He is known to be one of the most severe critics of Eyadéma’s regime. He was detained in September 1998 and accused of “spreading false news.”
For further information, contact Jean-François Julliard at RSF, rue Geoffroy Marie, Paris 75009, France, tel: +33 1 44 83 84 84, fax: +33 1 45 23 11 51, e-mail: afrique@rsf.fr, Internet: http://www.rsf.fr
