VZCZCXRO6346
RR RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHNM #1346 3061002
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 021002Z NOV 07
FM AMEMBASSY NIAMEY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3884
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUEHLMC/MCC WASHDC

UNCLAS NIAMEY 001346 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AF/W DENNISON, AF/RSA HARPOLE AND AF/PDPA WHITMAN 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM SOCI KCOR KPAO NG
SUBJECT: GON Arrests Another Journalist 
 
REF: (a) Niamey 876 (b) Niamey 1220 (c) Niamey 992 
 
¶1. Ibrahim Manzo Diallo, director of biweekly Agadez-based newspaper 
Air Info, was arrested on October 9, 2007 in Niamey.  He remained in 
custody without formal charges until October 31, 2007, when he was 
charged with conspiracy and transported to prison. 
 
¶2. Diallo was arrested at Niamey's international airport as he 
attempted to leave Niger, and was transported to Agadez.  Normally 
authorities must charge an individual within forty-eight hours of 
arrest (renewable once); however, Agadez is currently under a 
GON-declared state of alert, due to the ongoing MNJ insurrection in 
Northern Niger. [Comment: It is widely believed that Diallo was 
transported to Agadez to circumvent the forty-eight hour limit on 
detention without formal charges.  End Comment.] 
 
¶3. Diallo and his newspaper ran afoul of the GON in June 2007, when 
Air Info was suspended from publication for three months based on 
what the government considered "pro-MNJ" reporting on events in 
northern Niger (Ref a). Despite the suspension, Diallo began 
publishing a reconstituted version of the paper under the title Info 
d'Air.  When the state of alert was declared on August 24, 2007, he 
fled Agadez citing fear of arrest. 
 
¶4. On October 24, 2007 another journalist of Air Info, David 
Yacouba, was arrested.  He was held without charges until November 
1, 2007, when he was released.  The media reports that the actual 
reason for Yacouba's arrest was his interview of a national 
legislative representative from Agadez, who was part of an 
unofficial delegation of legislators from the region, which met with 
the MNJ.  The GON has refused to negotiate with the MNJ and has made 
no public statement about this meeting. 
 
¶5. Radio Sarounia director and Radio France Internationle (RFI) 
correspondent Moussa Kaka remains in prison awaiting trial on 
charges of violating national security (Ref b), based on alleged 
collaboration with the MNJ.  His lawyer Moussa Coulibaly, who also 
represents Diallo, maintains the evidence against Kaka, which 
consists of recorded telephone conversations between Kaka and MNJ 
members, was illegally obtained and is, therefore, inadmissible. 
 
¶6. Comment: While the substance and legality of the evidence against 
Kaka is unknown, his lawyer has acknowledged seeing a transcript of 
the alleged conversations.  However, there has been no similar 
evidence released against Diallo and his arrest appears to be 
motivated solely by his newspaper's reporting on events in the 
North. End comment. 
 
¶7. In another troubling development Mr. Daouda Diallo, president of 
Niger's Conseil Superieur de la Communication (CSC), warned that the 
regulatory body would sanction any media which criticized its 
rulings or members.  The warning took place during an October 17, 
2007 meeting between the CSC president and members of the private 
media.  In that same meeting Diallo decried "foreign entities" 
offering training conferences to Nigerien media, which instructed 
them they could "say whatever they want."  [Comment:  We believe 
this was a thinly veiled criticism of a PAS Niamey-sponsored media 
training on "The Role of Media in a Democracy" offered in July 2007 
with ARS Paris-speaker Eduardo Cue. End comment.] 
 
¶8. Comment:  The GON arrests of several journalists over the course 
of the past year and the most recent actions by the CSC president, 
coupled with his past public and private statements (Ref c), auger 
an ever-widening disconnect between the GON's statements and actions 
with regard to support for freedom of the press. 
 
ALLEN