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Press group wants journalist freed

    ABIDJAN

    A delegation of the Paris-based World Newspapers Association (WAN) has met with the Prime Minster of Togo, Agbeyome Kodjo, and urged him to free imprisoned journalist Lucien Messan, the group said on Wednesday.

    WAN said in a statement that it also condemned the seizure by the security forces of the 2 July edition of ‘Le Combat du Peuple’ published by Messan.

    “While the prime minister stressed he could make no promises, he gave us some hope that the situation could improve,” Aralynn Mcmane, a member of the delegation, was quoted as saying in the statement. “However, the meeting with the interior minister (Sizing Walla) who insisted that the conviction and the seizure of the newspaper were justified left us feeling less positive.”

    Messan, 55, was jailed for 18 months on 5 June on charges of publishing “falsehood and the use of falsehood” following a news release he signed on behalf of the Togolese Private Press Editors Association about extrajudicial killings allegedly committed in 1998.

    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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