About IFEX:

News by region:

IFEX Campaigns and Advocacy:

IFEX Email Products:

Opportunities and assistance:

Alert

ARTICLE 19 calls on prime minister to respect freedom of expression

(ARTICLE 19/IFEX) - The following is a 12 December 2005 ARTICLE 19 letter to Central African Republic Prime Minister Elie Dote:

Dear Mr. President,

ARTICLE 19 is seriously concerned with the Central African Republic's (CAR) approach to the media and freedom of expression.

The recent 29 October 2005 declaration of interim Transport Minister Fidel Gouandjika "to re-establish censorship in order to educate journalists" expresses a direct threat to press freedom. Despite the public defence presented on 14 November 2005, such remarks are very worrying.

ARTICLE 19 wishes to remind you that the CAR ratified the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights in 1986. Under the country's new 2004 constitution, Article 13 recognizes that "freedom to inform, to express and to express opinions is guaranteed," as is press freedom and access to information. Freedom of expression is indeed a basic right, essential to the development and workings of a democracy.

However the legal mechanisms in place in CAR are not sufficient to guarantee freedom of expression. ARTICLE 19 therein condemns: recurring government censorship of the media and violations of all forms of freedom of expression; the decree made on 6 December 2005 against musicians and their freedom to determine the tone of their messages; the ban on radio and television stations' broadcasts of songs that are said to "harm development in the country"; Mr. Gouandjika's defamatory remarks equating the station "Radio Ndeke Luka" to "Radio des milles collines" (radio station in Rwanda that incited hatred during 1994 genocide); and the series of death threats uttered in May 2005 against journalists Zéphirin Kaya and Patrick Akibata by members of the presidential guard.

ARTICLE 19, in solidarity with Fondation Hirondelle, calls on your government to immediately stop this threatening approach toward the media and to respect and guarantee freedom of expression in full.

Sincerely,

Agnès Callamard
Executive Director