Editor arrested in Guinea
CPJ News Alert 2005
Guinean security forces arrested the editor of one of the nation’s leading private weeklies at his home in the capital, Conakry, on Wednesday night. Authorities did not disclose charges against Mohamed Lamine Diallo, known by his pen name Benn Pépito, but local journalists believe the arrest could be linked to his journalism.
Security forces also searched Pépito’s home, but nothing was confiscated, local sources told the Committee to Protect Journalists. The journalist was being held at the headquarters of Conakry’s security services, local media groups said in a joint statement today.
“We call on Guinean authorities to explain why they are holding Benn Pépito and to make public any charges against him,” CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper said today.
The February 16 edition of Pépito’s newspaper, the private weekly La Lance, carried an editorial titled, “The situation in Lomé seen from Conakry,” which compared the political situation in Guinea, where President Lansana Conté has ruled since 1984, to that of Togo, where the army moved to install long-time ruler Gnassingbé Eyadema’s son as president following Eyadema’s death on February 5.
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