September 9, 1999
President Henri Konan Bedie
La Presidence
Boulevard Clozel
Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire
Your Excellency,
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a nonpartisan organization dedicated to the defense of press freedom worldwide, is writing to protest in the strongest terms against the continued detention of Raphael Lakpe and Jean Khalil Sylla, publisher and reporter, respectively, at the independent daily newspaper Le Populaire.
In the early hours of April 28, agents from the Territorial Surveillance Division (DST) arrested veteran journalist Raphael Lakpe at his Abidjan residence. Lakpe’s arrest resulted from an article by Sylla published in Le Populaire that same morning, entitled “One Student Killed, Four Wounded.”
According to the report, on the night of April 27 police officers beat a student to death on a university campus in Port-Bouet, a suburb of Abidjan. The police apparently met with resistance when they attempted to stop a spontaneous demonstration of students protesting against the belated payment of their bursaries.
The student association FESCI denied the newspaper’s allegations, emphasizing that the student was indeed badly injured but had survived the beating. Le Populaire acknowledged its mistake and published a correction the next day. But law enforcement officers continued their investigation. On June 9 they arrested Sylla.
Lakpe and Sylla are currently being held at Abidjan’s Arrests and Corrections House (MACA), accused of distributing and disclosing false news and disturbing public order.
CPJ deplores the fact that Cote d’Ivoire’s code of legal procedure allows journalists to be detained without charge for up to four months, renewable once at the prosecutor’s request. CPJ respectfully draws Your Excellency’s attention to a United Nations document of July 14, 1992, in which the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stressed that detention, as a sanction for expressing an opinion, constitutes one of the most reprehensible means of imposing silence.
As such, the continued detention of Raphael Lakpe and Jean Khalil Sylla is a gross violation of the internationally recognized right of journalists to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds. These rights are guaranteed by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and Article 9 of the African Charter of Human and People’s Rights, to all of which, we respectfully remind Your Excellency, Cote d’Ivoire is a signatory.
No democratic state today imposes prison sentences in press-related cases. CPJ is deeply concerned that the prolonged detention of Raphael Lakpe and Jean Khalil Sylla will negatively affect press freedom in Cote d’Ivoire, which had improved considerably after the establishment in 1991 of the National Council on Audiovisual Communication to regulate access to and distribution of information in a liberal and democratic spirit.
CPJ therefore urges Your Excellency to ensure that Lakpe and Sylla are immediately and unconditionally released. Thank you for your prompt attention to this urgent matter. We await your response.
Sincerely,
Ann K. Cooper
Executive Director
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President Henri Konan Bedie
La Presidence
Boulevard Clozel
Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire