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IFEX - News from the international freedom of expression community
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ALERT - NIGER

13 October 2003

President issues warning to independent radio stations

SOURCE: Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), Windhoek

**MISA and the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), as a joint activity,
will henceforth issue alerts, statements and appeals to highlight media freedom
and wider human rights violations in West Africa. See www.misa.org and
www.mediafoundationwa.org for more information**

(MISA/IFEX) - The following is a joint MISA-MFWA alert:

President M. Tandja Mamadou has warned independent radio stations operating in
parts of the country against broadcasting any programmes "liable to disturb the
social peace and public order."

In a 2 October 2003 radio message to all regional ministers, municipal chief
executives and district heads of public institutions, the president instructed
them to "immediately invite all media heads in areas under your jurisdiction and
call them to order to warn them against any act liable to endanger the peace and
public order." He also threatened that "any unacceptable behaviour would be
severely dealt with under the law."

Copies of the president's statement were distributed to media institutions
operating outside of the capital, Niamey.

Radio station managers have, in recent weeks, incurred the ire of state
authorities who have accused the stations of engaging in disparaging press
reviews, and of opening up their talk show and panel discussion programmes to
opposition groups and members of the Tuareg ethnic group to criticise the
government (see IFEX alerts of 7 October and 29 September 2003).

BACKGROUND:
Conflict between the government and the semi-nomadic Tuareg in the early 1990s
finally abated with the brokering of a peace accord in 1995. Some former rebel
elements have, however, been critical of the government's commitment to the
terms of the agreement.

For further information, contact Zoe Titus, Program Coordinator, Media Freedom
Monitoring, MISA, Street Address: 21 Johann Albrecht Street, Mailing Address;
Private Bag 13386, Windhoek, Namibia, tel: +264 61 232 975, fax: +264 61 248
016, e-mail: [email protected], Internet: http://www.misa.org, or Kwame
Karikari, Executive Director, Media Foundation for West Africa, P. O. Box LG
730, Legon, Ghana, tel: +233 21 24 24 70, fax: +233 21 22 10 84, e-mail:
[email protected], Internet: http://www.mediafoundationwa.org

The information contained in this alert is the sole responsibility of MISA. In
citing this material for broadcast or publication, please credit MISA.
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