The government of Gabon has suspended the publication of two magazines in a move which ”looks like a campaign of intimidation against the privately owned press” the French-based campaign group for press freedom, Reporters sans Frontieres, (RSF) said on Tuesday.
The government’s media watchdog, the National Communications Council, had ordered Misamu, which appears once every two months, to cease publication over a dispute between the founder and current editor about who owned the magazine.
However, RSF noted that this decision followed the magazine’s publication of an article about the mysterious death of an aide to Pascaline Bongo, the eldest daughter of President Omar Bongo, who is also the head of the president’s office. Misamu accused a senior finance ministry official of murdering the deceased aide.
RSF said that three days later the government had ordered a three month suspension of the weekly newspaper Le Temps
RSF said these moves looked like ”a campaign of intimidation against the privately owned press and is nothing more than a way of preventing the population from having access to more objective information and knowledge of different manoeuvres by the government”.
RSF added that two other newspapers, Jeunnesse Action and L’Espoir, had received final warnings from the National Communications Council this month. – Irin