Second journalist arrested over mutiny reports

A second journalist, Boulama Ligari, has been arrested in connection with news coverage of the recent army mutiny in Niger. He was being detained by the gendarmerie on Wednesday, sources told IRIN.

Ligari's arrest followed that of Moussa Kaka on Friday by gendarmes. Kaka heads a private radio station, Radio Saraounia.

Reporters Sans Frontieres, a group which campaigns to defend press freedoms and is demanding Ligari's release, said that the journalist had been transferred during Tuesday night to the prison in Diffa, where he was being held. Diffa is 1,500 km east of the capital, Niamey.

"He has not been charged yet," an RSF official told IRIN on Wednesday.

According to his colleagues and local sources, Ligari, who also worked for the private Radio Anfani, was arrested for mutiny-related reports he filed through the station.

"To our knowledge, he was only doing his work. The authorities must stop arresting journalists who covered the mutiny," Robert Menard, RSF Secretary-General said in a statement on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Hama Amadou had said Ligari, like Kaka, was arrested under a 5 August presidential decree banning any news reports that could jeopardise national defence. Kaka was however released after a 12-hour detention.

A leading human rights advocate, Elhadj Bagnou Bonkoukou, was remanded in custody on 16 August, two days after police arrested him for questioning the official death toll of clashes between mutineers and soldiers loyal to the government.

The government accused Bonkoukou, head of the Ligue nigerienne des droits de l'homme (LNDDH, or Niger Human Rights League), of propagating information that could jeopardise national defence operations. If found guilty, he faces up to five years in jail. His trial is scheduled to open on 5 September.

The army mutiny broke out in army barracks in eastern Niger on 31 July and was put down on 9 August by loyalist troops. According to official accounts, there were two casualties - one on either side - and more than 260 soldiers were arrested.