RSF denounces military threats against media

Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) has expressed concern, in a letter to the chief of staff of Guinea-Bissau’s armed forces, Verissimo Correia Seabra, over threats by soldiers against journalists, RSF reported on Thursday. It said it had asked Seabra to condemn and put a stop to the threats.

RSF said that, according to information it had gathered, the chief of staff of the air force, Brig-Gen Melciades Lopes Fernandes, forced his way into the studio at Bombolon FM on 30 March and threatened journalists at the private radio station. He did this during the airing of a programme about a group of over 100 soldiers detained in connection with a coup attempt on 23 November 2000.

On 31 March, during a programme broadcast on state radio and television, members of the military verbally attacked journalists. “The time for tolerance has ended,” Lopes Fernandes told journalists invited on the programme. He also said he had filed a complaint against a journalist at Bombolom FM and that, if war broke out the station would be the first target. Another officer said that “by covering certain subjects, journalists are simply preparing the population for another war”. A third called on journalists to stop involving themselves in military matters. The opposition-dominated parliament publicly condemned the military’s statements.

RSF also recalled other abuses against journalists including the detention for one night - on 15 February - of a journalist from a private newspaper, ‘Diario de Bissau’, along with a photographer and a driver. The journalist had been trying to obtain information for a story on two local diplomats who had been repeatedly called in for questioning by the police.

On 8 March, 30 journalists signed a motion “against censorship and arbitrary detention of journalists during the exercise of their profession in Guinea-Bissau” following threats against the media by the deputy attorney-general.