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Net Press director released

    NAIROBI

    The director of Net Press news service in Burundi, Jean-Claude Kavumbagu, was released on Thursday, six days after being arrested for alleged failure to sever links with a website the government had deemed to be "spreading propaganda of hatred and violence," the agency reported on Friday.

    "I called Mr Kavumbagu to my office Thursday [3 July] to ask him to shut down the window which took you to [this website], he promised to do it, but Friday he had not kept his promise," AFP quoted Communications Minister Albert Mbonerane as saying upon Kavumbagu's arrest.

    In a statement on 6 July, Net Press termed the arrest "arbitrary". It said that all links to the site in question, the Denmark-based Agora website, were severed by 5 July before noon.

    Net Press said that Kavumbagu was interrogated twice by the presidential police during his detention, as well as a third time on Friday after his release, regarding Net Press' relations with the Agora website.

    Following an order issued on 26 August 2002 by the state-run media regulatory authority, the National Communications Council, Net Press said it ceased providing material for the opinion column of the Agora site on 10 September 2002.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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