Portuguese radio banned

Guinea-Bissau's authorities have slapped an indefinite ban on the Portuguese radio and television channel, Radiotelevisao Portuguesa (RTP) as of 1 December. The measure, announced by the Secretary of State for Information, Joao Manuel Gomes, "is unjust and unjustifed," Reporters sans frontieres (RSF) said on Tuesday in a letter to Gomes, whom RSF asked to repeal the ban. According to an official communique, the government took action against RTP for publishing information whose tenor could harm Guinea-Bissau's good image abroad and foment anger in the country. On 30 November RTF had done a report to mark the second anniversary of the death of the former head of Guinea-Bissau's military junta, General Ansumane Mane, killed after an attempted coup d'etat against President Kumba Yala. RTP's bureau chief in Bissau, João Pereira da Silva, is to be questioned by the Secretary of State in connection with information contained in the report. Crackdowns against the media are frequent in Guinea-Bissau. Two journalists were held for questioning in June after carrying reports about the Guinean president. On 5 August a radio journalist was fined for denouncing the concentration of power in the hands of members of the president's ethnic group.