Togo / Africa

Hopes were high in July that Ivory Coast’s political crisis would end after a judge in the capital, Abidjan, confirmed that former prime minister Alassane Dramane Ouattara, the leader of the opposition Rally for Republicans (RDR), is an Ivory Coast citizen.

The Togolese government attempted to create a veneer of openness and democracy by finally holding twice-postponed legislative elections, while President Gnassingbé Eyadéma and his ruling Rassemblement du Peuple Togolais (Rally of the Togolese People, or RPT) increasingly harassed the private press. Authorities’ routine censorship of private publications, imprisonment of reporters, and attempts to impose new…

New York, March 28, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) deplores the Togolese government’s decision to bar the entire foreign press corps from working in the country. On March 26, the Communications Ministry sent a press release to the local newsrooms of the BBC, Radio France Internationale, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse barring foreign journalists from…

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about increased restrictions on press freedom in Togo ahead of presidential elections, which are scheduled for June. We are particularly alarmed by last week’s closure of private radio station Tropik FM, based in the capital, Lomé. On Friday, February 28, the High Authority for…

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is gravely concerned that Togo continues its slide toward becoming West Africa’s worst press freedom abuser. We are particularly alarmed at recently proposed legislation to amend Togo’s already repressive press laws.

New York, June 18, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the continued imprisonment of Basile Agboh, publication director of the independent Lomé­based weekly Le Scorpion. Agboh has been in prison for two weeks. Agboh was arrested on June 5 along with Maurice Atchinou, editor-in-chief of Le Scorpion, who was released the following day. Their arrests…

Your Excellency: In May 2000, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) wrote to you expressing concern that Togo’s harsh new Press Code would greatly inhibit the flow of information in your country. A spate of recent press freedom abuses has confirmed our fears.

Silence reigned supreme in Eritrea, where the entire independent press was under a government ban and 11 journalists languished in jail at year’s end. Clamorous, deadly power struggles raged in Zimbabwe over land and access to information, and in Burundi over ethnicity and control of state resources. South Africa, Senegal, and Benin remained relatively liberal…

Following widespread allegations of human rights abuses in Togo, President Gnassingbé Eyadema and the ruling Rassemblement du Peuple Togolais (RPT) struggled all year to prove their commitment to democracy, promising parliamentary elections that were ultimately postponed until 2002 for “technical reasons.” Desperate to improve its international image while retaining a tight grip on power, RPT…

Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is disturbed by the recent government seizure of the entire print run of the private Lomé-based weekly Le Combat du Peuple and the sentencing of Lucien Messan, the paper’s editor-in-chief, to 18 months in prison. On July 2, according to international news sources, 30 armed police officers stormed the printing press of Le Combat du Peuple, seizing printing plates and all copies of the paper’s latest edition.