4 December 2009

Alert

Judge orders automatic seizure of newspaper's issues


Incident details

Closure

"La Voix", Newspaper

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(RSF/IFEX) - On 3 December 2009, a court in N'Djamena ordered the automatic seizure of all issues published by the privately-owned weekly "La Voix".

"We condemn this baseless decision, which reflects a desire to close the newspaper," Reporters Without Borders said. "The interior ministry's threats have unfortunately been carried out."

"This is a political decision, one that is marred by irregularities," said one of the newspaper's lawyers, Jean-Bernard Padaré. "La Voix" hopes to continue publishing.

The court could not legally order the newspaper's closure so it issued the automatic seizure order because the effect would be the same. The grounds given by the judge was the absence of an editor. In fact, "La Voix" does have an editor - Innocent Ebodé, a Cameroonian citizen who was deported on 14 October although there were no grounds for his deportation.

Reporters Without Borders has been told that Ebodé is now on his way back to Chad with the aim of challenging this decision.

Source:

Reporters Without Borders
47, rue Vivienne
75002 Paris
France
rsf (@) rsf.org
Phone: +33 1 44 83 84 84
Fax: +33 1 45 23 11 51
 

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More on this case

Court lifts sanctions against weekly "La Voix" 8 January 2010 Cameroonian newspaper editor abducted 22 December 2009 Authorities continue to hound new weekly, seek its closure 2 December 2009 Cameroonian journalist expelled 16 October 2009

Chad

Parliament adopts repressive media law 24 August 2010 Repressive print media bill rejected in parliamentary vote 8 June 2010 Court lifts sanctions against weekly "La Voix" 8 January 2010 Cameroonian newspaper editor abducted 22 December 2009 Former minister sues editor over embezzlement allegations 8 December 2009 See all alerts: Chad


 
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