RSF protests violence against journalist

Reporters without Borders (RSF) said on Thursday that it had urged Mali’s parliament to take action against a parliamentarian from the ruling Alliance démocratique du Mali (ADEMA) who choked a journalist, Chahana Takiou of the private periodical ‘Independant’.

In a letter to the speaker of the national assembly, Aly Nouhoum Diallo, RSF urged him to “speak out publicly in favour of sanctions against Mr. Mamadou Gassama Diaby”, whom the journalist has since sued.

According to information reaching RSF, Tiakou had been on a reporting assignment at the assembly on Wednesday when the parliamentarian attacked and began to throttle him. Bystanders separated the two men, but Tiakou had to be taken to the infirmary of the legislative college.

The journalist had recently reported that a senior ADEMA official had bribed a parliamentarian to support the idea of an extraordinary congress of the party. “As far as we know, Chahana Tiakou was only exercising his right to inform, guaranteed by the international pact on civil and political rights ratified by Mali,” RSF said. It also urged the speaker to “call the entire parliament to order so that such an act is not repeated”.