“We are taking this information and the threat it entails very seriously,” Reporters Without Borders said. “With a climate of fear still prevailing within the Guinean media, we will hold the junta responsible for any use of violence against the Lynx-Lance press group and its employees. We also urge Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaoré, who is mediating in the Guinean crisis, to ask the junta to respect media freedom and the expression of diverse views.”

Reporters Without Borders was told that the operation would consist of a night-time raid on the press group’s headquarters and “ambushes” against some of its journalists. These attacks would be blamed on “uncontrolled elements.” It appears that the military have decided to “silence” theLynx-Lance group because of its perceived support for the opposition.

Souleymane Diallo, the head of the Lynx-Lance group, told Reporters Without Borders: “We must not let ourselves be discouraged by this information. We will continue to do our job with objectivity, as we always do.”

In a separate case, Reporters Without Borders deplores the fact that Talibé Barry, the editor of the L’Indépendant press group, was summoned for questioning at the headquarters of the national gendarmerie on 11 November in connection with an article about the disappearance of a soldier.

Guinea’s journalists meanwhile regard Cheikh Fantamady Condé’s recent appointment as information and culture minister as a backward step for press freedom. Condé believes in media uniformity and is keeping Radio Télévision Guinéenne (RTG) and the other state media under close control, ensuring that their coverage of political developments is muted.

Ever since the military dispersed an opposition protest in a Conakry stadium with great loss of life on 28 September, many Guinean journalists have been living in fear, in part because of reliable reports that a blacklist of journalists has been compiled by staunch supporters of Guinea’s military leader, Capt. Dadis Camara, for an operation called “Dadis or death.”

In the immediate aftermath of the 28 September massacre, the junta organised a manhunt for the “traitors” within the media who had “sold out Guinea” to the international community by covering the massacre. Several journalists who work for international media or online media have fled the country because of death threats. Some, who Reporters Without Borders prefers not to name, are seeking asylum abroad.

It coincides with continuing serious threats to local reporters and yesterday’s arrival of United Nations assistant secretary-general Haile Menkerios in Conakry to conduct a UN probe into last month’s massacre of opposition demonstrators.

“The authorities in Conakry are clearly unhappy with the way the international media are covering events in Guinea and have apparently decided to stop allowing them into the country,” Reporters Without Borders said. “After physically mistreating and then threatening local journalists, the Guinean military have begun a new phase in their handling of undesired witnesses.”

The press freedom organisation continued: “Given the prevailing climate, this latest measure and the absence of any foreign journalist in Guinea are extremely worrying. We urge the UN assistant secretary-general not to limit his investigation to the 28 September violence but to include the issue of press freedom and the treatment of journalists.”

Three French journalists employed by the French international TV news station France 24 were refused entry at Conakry airport on the evening of 17 October and were put on the first flight back to Paris. Two of them, Cyril Vannier and Willy Bracciano, did not have visas. The third, Alain Chabot, had a visa and had already visited the country since 28 September. He was nonetheless also denied entry on the grounds that he did not have a letter of invitation.

Three journalists employed by the French public TV station France 2 were denied entry the same day on their arrival from the Senegalese capital of Dakar and were forced to take the first flight back to Senegal. Patrick Forestier, a French reporter employed by the magazine Paris Match, was denied entry on 15 October.

Meanwhile, many local journalists (whom Reporters Without Borders would rather not identify) continue to be kept under surveillance by the military authorities and continue to receive death threats, especially by telephone.

Reporters Without Borders added: “All of the actors involved in resolving the crisis should take these threats very seriously and should be aware that there could be more atrocities if nothing is done to ensure that Guinea’s journalists are protected.”

In the past few days, the French government has been urging its citizens to leave the country.

Picture : AFP

Ten days after army Red Berets dispersed an opposition protest with a great deal of bloodshed in Conakry on 28 September, Reporters Without Borders warns that the climate for the press has become extremely menacing and appeals to mediators to try to protect journalists.

“A resolution of the Guinean crisis requires protecting not just civilians in general but also journalists in particular, as they are the target of military abuses,” Reporters Without Borders said. “And if Guinea’s military leader, Capt. Dadis Camara, claims to be still governing the country, he must make his troops see reason.”

The staff of one privately-owned radio station, some of whom have received explicit threats from soldiers close to Camara, are currently barricaded inside the station and are producing just minimum programming.

Several journalists with other news media, whom Reporters Without Borders prefers not to identify for obvious security reasons, have been accused of “giving information to foreigners” and have received death threats by telephone. Some journalists are withholding their by-lines from their reports, while others have fled their homes.

When Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaoré flew to Conakry on 5 October as a would-be mediator in the crisis, journalists from privately-owned media were denied access to the airport area where visiting dignitaries arrive. Some of the journalists were roughed up in front of the minister in charge of presidential security. Only state media journalists and the Burkina Faso media were admitted.

In Bellevue, where the meetings with President Compaoré took place, Red Berets and the bodyguards of territorial administration minister Frédéric Kolié poured insults on all the journalists present, promising to go after them “as soon as the next riots break out.” “Everyone will talk about it,” the Red Berets said. Even the state TV was accused of “complicity” with the protesters for failing to show a ransacked police station.

Reporters Without Borders interviewed Mouctar Bah, the Conakry correspondent of Agence France-Presse and Radio France Internationale, after the 28 September bloodshed in Conakry. He described how he and BBC correspondent Amadou Diallo were threatened and roughed up by soldiers. Read the previous release. Many journalists were beaten and injured on 28 September, some sustained stab wounds and some were arrested for several hours. At the same time, their equipment was systematically stolen or smashed. All of the country’s journalists – print media, radio, TV and website reporters – are now threatened.

Picture: AFP/Seyllou

“Journalists have been playing a vital role in informing Guineans and the international community about the tragic events of the past 48 hours in Conakry,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We strongly condemn the actions of the Guinean soldiers who carried out a massacre and who are now hunting down the witnesses. The situation is grave and the safety of these two men is in danger.”

Bah and Diallo were warned today by friends that soldiers were looking for them because they were regarded as having “betrayed” the military to the international community by describing the extremely violent dispersal of the 28 September demonstration, in which hundreds were killed and thousands injured.

As a result, the two reporters have gone into hiding.

Bah has told Reporters Without Borders how he and Diallo were roughed up soldiers. “There were four of them,” he said. “They shouted, ‘Get lost.’ We said we were journalists and they said, ‘We don’t give a damn.’ A soldier asked me: ‘Did you see it?’ I said I had. ‘You won’t say anything,’ he replied. The soldiers forced us to our knees in front of the bodies. There were bodies everywhere, and pools of blood. They said: ‘Those bodies, you won’t talk about them. You’ve seen nothing.”

Bah added: “One of the soldiers put his gun to my chest and said he was going to kill me. I replied, ‘If that is the solution for Guinea, go ahead.’ He did not fire. They searched us. They stole our money and our phones and they destroyed our equipment. The microphone was smashed against the tarmac. They were completely drunk. They poured a bottle of beer over my head and shirt and hit Amadou’s left arm. Then one of their chiefs recognised us. It was Ansoumane Camara, the commander of the Rapid Intervention and Security Company (CMIS). He ordered them to let us go but they continued to insult us and call us bastards.”

Many other journalists were roughed by the same day, Bah said. They include an FM Liberté reporter and Ba Mamadou, who works for the satirical newspaper Le Lynx.

Widely referred to as a “massacre” and as a “bloodbath,” the 28 September events have been unanimously condemned in the international community.

The head of the military junta, Capt. Dadis Camara, has said he is sorry for what happened. On the day of the massacre, he told RFI: “It’s unfortunate, it’s dramatic. Very frankly speaking, I’m very sorry, very sorry.” Yesterday he told the French TV channel Europe 1: “I was overtaken by events. I can’t control all the actions of this army. To say that I control this army would be demagogy.”

Picture : AFP