Niger Charges 2 French Journalists

Authorities formally charged two French journalists Wednesday with threatening state security for attempting to report on rebel groups in Niger’s volatile north, a crime punishable by death in the West African country.

The journalists, who work for Paris-based Camicas Productions, have been held in a Niger prison since they were arrested Dec. 17 near the northern outpost of Iferouane.

The government has banned all foreigners and reporters from entering the area since the rebirth of an ethnic Tuareg rebellion last year.

Government officials accused the journalists of attempting to report on the rebels when they only had permission to travel to more southern areas to report on bird flu.

The government, which argues that the rebel group is primarily made up of drug and arms smugglers who want to destabilize the country, has arrested several journalists who have either traveled to the region or attempted to interview the rebels by phone.

The judge read out the charges against reporter Pierre Creisson and cameraman Thomas Dandois on Wednesday, but did not set a trial date or say what the next step in the proceeding would be.

Defense attorney Moussa Coulibaly said the two “had been subjected to an intense interrogation” and the footage they recorded of the rebels was scrutinized by authorities.

The Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders has decried the detention of the two men, who were filming a piece for French-German television channel Arte, as “extremely harsh” and called the charges “disproportionate.”

Lawyers have asked for the two reporters to be let out on bail but the judge has not yet responded.

The rebel Niger Movement for Justice, known by its French acronym of MNJ, accuses Niger’s government of reneging on promises to improve economic opportunities for the nomadic Tuareg people and of trying to push the blue-robed nomads off uranium-rich lands so the state can profit.

Leaders of the group have conducted interviews with foreign reporters by satellite phone and countered the government lock-down on information by putting information about their activities on a Web site.

– By Dalatou Mamane

Popularity: 1% [?]