A reporter from a private radio station was arrested early this week in connection with a mutiny that broke out in the southeastern region of the impoverished country at the beginning of the month, Radio Anfani has said.
Boulama Ligari, who was arrested on Monday, had provided extensive coverage of the mutiny, often reporting live from sites in the southeastern town of Diffa where rank and file soldiers had risen up against their superiors in early August to demand better pay and conditions, Radio Anfani said late on Tuesday.
Troops loyal to the government of President Mamadou Tandja crushed the mutiny on August 9, after 10 days of unrest which also spread to the capital, Niamey.
Anfani, the only independent radio station in Diffa, also broadcasts in and around Niamey.
Ligari is the second journalist to have been arrested in line with an official inquiry into the mutiny.
On Friday, a correspondent for Radio France Internationale (RFI) was arrested in Niamey, but released after being held for around 12 hours, according to another private radio station, Radio Saraounya.
Human rights organisations have denounced what they call the ”persecution” of rights activists and the media by the government in the past few weeks since the mutinies were quashed.
During the army uprising, Tandja issued a decree which forbade the ”propagation of information or allegations likely to be detrimental to the implementation of national defence operations.”
Violation of the measure could lead to the suspension or closure of newspapers, the decree warned, adding that anyone distributing such information or allegations would be considered an accomplice and be punished, the decree said.
The head of Niger’s League for the Defence of Human Rights (LNDHH), Bangnou Bonkoukou, is currently in jail in Niamey, accused of distributing ”false information.” His case is due to go to court on September 5.
Another prominent rights activist, Amina Balla Kalto, who heads a grouping of 14 rights organisations, has been detained several times by the police, who accuse her of ”taking sides” during the military uprisings in Diffa and Niamey. – Sapa-AFP