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DE RUEHBP #0026/01 0151208
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FM AMEMBASSY BAMAKO
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INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
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C O N F I D E N T I A L BAMAKO 000026 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/13/2019 
TAGS: KDEM PGOV PHUM ML
SUBJECT: RADIO KAYIRA JOURNALIST ARRESTED, THEN FREED 
 
REF: BAMAKO 479 
 
Classified By: Political Counselor Peter Newman, Embassy Bamako, 
for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: On December 31, 2009, police in Kita, Mali, 
arrested Noumouke Sidibe, a journalist for the opposition 
Radio Kayira group of radio stations.  Local authorities 
accused Sidibe of having used his radio show to incite the 
July 15, 2009 riots in Kita that occurred following the 
shooting and death of a mini-bus driver by a Gendarme (see 
reftel).  Sidibe was released by an investigative judge in 
Kayes, Mali on January 6, 2010, after Radio Kayira provided 
recordings of its broadcasts in Kita showing that Sidibe was 
not on the air during the period in question.  Sidibe, who 
has provoked the ire of officials in Kita by criticizing 
government projects, is the latest in a series of Radio 
Kayira personalities who have been arrested and held on 
dubious charges.  End Summary. 
 
 
SUSPICIONS AND PROOF 
 
¶2. (SBU) On July 15, 2009, youth angry about the shooting and 
death of minibus taxi driver by a Gendarme rioted in Kita, 
attacking the courthouse, city hall, and other symbols of the 
state (reftel).  In the aftermath of the rioting, numerous 
police officers accused Noumouke Sidibe of inciting rioters 
and directing them to specific targets on his radio program. 
Sidibe, a journalist for the opposition Radio Kayira group of 
radio stations, admitted being in Kita on July 15, but denied 
inciting the riots and claimed he was never on the air that 
day.  Sidibe had, however, become an outspoken and recognized 
critic of local authorities, having frequently accused local 
leaders of corruption and real estate speculation.  Just 
before the riots in Kita, Sidibe had led a campaign against 
the granting of a logging concession in a forest near Kita 
to a Chinese firm. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Oumar Mariko, the national director of Radio Kayira 
and president of the opposition political party African 
Solidarity for Democracy and Independence (SADI),  brought 
Sidibe to Bamako in order to help him avoid arrest. 
According to a press release issued by Radio Kayira, Sidibe 
was in Bamako to wait for tensions in Kita to cool.  After 
discussions with local authorities, during which Mariko 
provided cassette recordings of Radio Kayira's broadcasts on 
July 15, Sidibe returned to Kita on December 31.  He was 
arrested the same day, based on thetestimony of a community 
elder that he had seen Sidibe amongst the rioters on July 15. 
 
¶4. (SBU) On January 6, 2009, PolOff met with the operational 
director of Radio Kayira, Mahamadou Diarra, to discuss Radio 
Kayira,s difficulties with Malian authorities.  The meeting 
was frequently interrupted by telephone calls from Kayes, 
where Sidibe was being held and where Oumar Mariko was 
undertaking efforts to secure his release.  Diarra said the 
Prosecutor in Kita had determined the testimony of the 
community elder was not sufficient to prove incitement to 
rioting, as Sidibe had admitted to going to the site of the 
rioting in his capacity as a journalist.  Diarra said further 
that an investigative judge in Kayes was at that very minute 
listening to the cassette recordings of Radio Kayira's 
broadcast on July 15, and had promised that Sidibe would be 
released if no compromising material was found.  After 
approximately one hour had passed, Diarra's cellular phone 
rang again and after taking the call he informed that the 
judge had found Sidibe's voice was on none of the recordings 
and he had not been on the air on July 15.  Diarra said the 
court's personnel were in the process of completing Sidibe's 
paperwork for release. 
 
IRRESPONSIBLE JOURNALISM NOT AGAINST THE LAW 
 
¶5. (C) Sidibe is the latest in a series of Radio Kayira 
personalities who have found themselves in difficulty  with 
the authorities.  At the meeting on January 6, Diarra told 
PolOff, &there is not a single member of the Radio Kayira 
management that has not been in jail at one time or 
another,8 if only for a few hours.   Also present at the 
meeting was Nouhoum Keita, who was arrested February 26, 2009 
and remained behind bars at Bamako's Central Prison until 
April 15, 2009.  Several months earlier, Keita had been 
interrogated because a false passport issued in his name had 
been used in conjunction with a gold dust scheme in which an 
Indian national had been defrauded.  The victim of the scheme 
told the investigating judge that Keita was not the person 
who had swindled him, and the judge allowed Keita to return 
home. 
¶6.  (C) Diarra said that on February 25, when Keita told his 
story on Radio Kayira, expressed his suspicion that 
government officials were involved in the gold dust scheme 
and stated his intention to file a lawsuit to learn the 
identity of those officials, he was placed under arrest. 
Although released on April 15, 2009, Keita's case remains 
open.  According to Keita, each time he has inquired into its 
status, he has been told "to let it go."  Another meeting 
participant was Amadou Nanco Mariko, who spent over a month 
in jail in 2006 in a case Reporters Without Borders denounced 
as "disproportionate" punishment.  Mariko and five others 
were convicted of broadcasting without authorization.  Their 
defense was that the law gave the government only 15 days to 
approve or disapprove their request for a license, and the 
government took no action within one year.    The six Radio 
Kayira personalities appealed the sentence, and three years 
later their case remains open. 
 
¶7. (C) Comment: Radio Kayira is an opposition station and 
goes out of its way to be provocative.  Many of its 
accusations against the government are outrageous and later 
determined to be false.  Irresponsible journalism though its 
programming may carry at times, Radio Kayira has a right to 
broadcast under Malian law and does not merit the repeated 
legal harassment and trumped up charges  it has experienced 
at the hands of local authorities.  The judicial process 
while certainly not without its own faults, appears to be 
protecting the journalists, to a certain extent.  End comment. 
 
BARLERIN