Media watchdog reacts to threats against journalists

Reporters without Borders (RSF-reporters sans Frontieres) has expressed concern about threats which, it said, were made by Guinea-Bissau's Attorney General, Caetano Intchama, against journalists from a private radio station. In a letter sent on 11 September to Intchama, who was appointed last week, RSF asked him to apologise to the newsroom of Radio Pidjiquiti and publicly declare his commitment to press freedom. RSF said that according to information it had gathered, Intchama went to the radio station on 8 September and asked for the tapes of a programme broadcast earlier that day. During the programme, journalists had commented on the news of the week, including Intchama's appointment, saying they wondered what President Kumba Yala's motives were for awarding Intchama the post. When the newsroom refused to hand over the tapes, the attorney general, who was accompanied by two armed soldiers, threatened to arrest the journalists. On 9 September, his bodyguard went back to the radio station and threatened its staff. "It is unacceptable that the first measure taken by a newly appointed prosecutor should be to go to a media house and threaten its journalists," RSF Secretary-General Robert Menard said. "The role of a prosecutor is to guarantee public order and not to attack media professionals who are only exercising their right to inform their fellow citizens." Another watchdog, Amnesty International expressed concern that freedom of expression was under attack in Guinea-Bissau in a statement it issued on 27 June in reaction to the detention of two journalists accused of defamation by the state. Amnesty had said journalists had been detained and harassed in past months for criticising government policy or reporting issues deemed sensitive by the authorities. It had called on the government to "take immediate steps to end the arbitrary detention and harassment of journalists and to bring those responsible for such abuses to justice".