Attacks on the Press - Committee to Protect Journalists

attacks on the press in 2009africa: nigerHeavy criticism in the independent press generated a similar presidentialresponse. On July 8, Tandja issued a decree giving the president of the mediaregulatory agency, the High Council on Communications, full authority to takepunitive steps against any news outlet perceived as harming a vaguely definednational security standard, according to local journalists and news reports. Thedecree contravened normal council procedures that required consultation amongthe full membership and the issuance of a formal warning before any disciplinaryaction could be taken, according to legal experts.The Niger Association of Independent Press Editors, representing 60 newspapers,23 radio stations, and four television stations, tried to protest the authoritarianmeasures by imposing a weeklong news blackout beginning July 20. Thegovernment, apparently seeking to talk past its critics, responded by inviting journalistsfrom outside Niger to come and report on pending public constructionprojects that Tandja had made focal points of his bid to stay in power. About 30foreign journalists from state and private media outlets accepted the invitation.Many private media outlets chose not to cover the referendum on the constitutionalchanges. Journalists such as Ali Idrissa, deputy director-general ofDounia, a private radio and television broadcaster, told CPJ that they had beenwarned by the Interior Ministry and the president of the High Council on Communicationsnot to air interviews with those boycotting the referendum. MoussaAksar, editor of the weekly L’Evènement, expressed great disappointment in theTandja administration’s heavy-handed actions. “We chose this job of journalist sothat democracy can take hold in this country,” he said. “This takes us backwards.”The constitutional changes extended Tandja’s term, which was due to expirein December, by three years, and allowed him to seek indefinite re-election. Thepresident further consolidated power on the Constitutional Court and in theNational Assembly. The court was reconstituted in July with new presidentialappointees, according to news reports. In an October election to replace the assembly,the ruling party won two-thirds of the assembly’s 113 seats. The votingwas largely boycotted by the opposition.The constitutional changes also remade the High Council on Communicationsinto a seven-member body, four of whose members are to be presidentialappointees. (The other members are to be nominated by the communicationsminister and the speakers of the National Assembly and Senate.) The new formatgave Tandja majority control of an agency that had previously included 11members, five of them presidential appointees. “With such [membership], we arecertain that many press outlets will be closed,” said Boubacar Diallo, head of theNiger Association of Independent Press Editors. By late year, most of the newmembers had been appointed according to the new provisions.The High Council on Communications had assembled a record of repres-sive actions over the years, but its members had also asserted some level of independence.Earlier in 2009, six members publicly opposed Council PresidentDaouda Diallo’s effort to ban Dounia, a broadcaster known for its favorablecoverage of exiled politician Hama Amadou. Speaking to CPJ, Diallo accusedDounia of broadcasting a “call for insurrection” by airing statements opposing theconstitutional changes. The six members said in a statement that Diallo had actedimproperly by imposing the ban unilaterally. A High Court judge agreed and rescindedthe ban against Dounia on July 2.Tandja’s bid to stay in office exacerbated longstanding tension between theindependent press and the government—a strain fueled by years of censorship,criminal prosecutions, and imprisonments of journalists covering sensitive issues.Coverage of corruption, particularly in the management of Niger’s natural resources,drew harsh government responses in 2009.In early August, just days before the referendum, police questioned editorsof eight private newspapers that detailed leaked documents purporting to showthat profits from uranium mining had been funneled to President Tandja’s son,Hadia. In a separate case in April, Dounia Director General Abibou Garba wascharged with criminal defamation and broadcasting false news after his stationaired a debate in which an activist described a uranium deal between the Frenchnuclear energy company AREVA and the government as the “looting of Niger’sresources.” The case was pending in late year.The arrests undercut Tandja’s public pledges to fight entrenched graft. Nigerranked poorly—115th among 180 countries—in terms of corruption, accordingto Transparency International’s 2008 public corruption index. The private pressregularly reported on alleged mismanagement of public institutions, often at thecost of imprisonment and harassment. In January, Editor Boussada Ben Ali ofthe weekly L’Action was jailed in connection with a story alleging that the FinanceMinistry had awarded a medical supply contract without open bidding. A judgeconvicted Ali of “divulging information likely to undermine public order” andsentenced him to three months in prison. When Ali’s lawyer, Yahouza Amani,publicly criticized the ruling, he was arrested and detained for 24 hours for “discreditinga justice decision,” local journalists said. In a separate case in September,Editor Ibrahim Soumana Gaoh of the private weekly Le Témoin spent nine daysin prison over a story accusing former Communications Minister Mohamed BenOmar of involvement in an embezzlement scheme at the national telecommunicationscompany SONITEL.The case of another imprisoned journalist, Abdoulaye Tiémogo, editor of theweekly Le Canard Déchaîné, illustrated the government’s determination to persecutecritical journalists. Tiémogo had been arrested at least three times and had gone intohiding in fear of arrest at least once during this decade, according to CPJ research.3 4 3 5