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Alert

Publication director arrested, five others summoned by interior minister

(JED/IFEX) - Alexis Maka Gbossokoto, publication director for the private daily "Le Citoyen", based in the capital, Bangui, was arrested on 8 July 2004 at 11:00 a.m. (local time) and remanded in custody at the criminal investigations unit of the Bangui gendarmerie, following a defamation complaint brought against him by the former director of the power utility company Energie centrafricaine (ENERCA), Jean-Serge Wafio. The journalist was questioned before being placed in police custody on the orders of the state prosecutor.

According to information received by JED, Wafio criticised "Le Citoyen" for a series of articles it published in which he was accused of financial misdealing and misappropriation of funds. According to the former ENERCA director, the articles led to his dismissal from the utility in June.

Publication directors from five other newspapers were also summoned to appear before the prosecutor general and the interior minister on 9 July. Momet Mathurin, of "Le Confident", Faustin Bambou, of "Les Collines du Bas-Oubangui", Ambroise Yalima, of "Le Patriote", Jacob Kamandoko, of "Centrafric'un", and Judes Zossé, of "L'Hirondelle", did not respond to the interior minister's summonses, which specified that they should bring their publishing licences with them.

Prior to the latest directive, publication directors were summoned to the offices of the communications minister, Lieuteneant-Colonel Parfait M'Bay, on 2 July. M'Bay warned the directors against "adding fuel to the fire during [the] transition to constitutional rule." The previous evening, in a speech delivered on public radio, the minister had accused the independent press of "serious excesses" and claimed the papers were being "used by some citizens to misinform, manipulate and discredit senior government officials."

Journalists in Bangui who spoke to JED claim this latest offensive against the independent press may be linked to various newspapers' coverage of President François Bozize's latest visit to Germany, which was apparently meant to have been a secret.

"All of these actions are nothing but an attempt to subdue the independent private press," said one journalist, a member of the Central African Association of Private and Independent Newspaper Editors (Groupement des éditeurs de la presse privée indépendante de Centrafrique, GEPPIC). Members of the association, which held a special meeting on 9 July, have decided to suspend publication of their newspapers beginning 12 July and until Gbossokoto is released.