The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned firmly today, the violence and death threats by the military junta against journalists in Guinea.

Mouctar Bah, the Conakry correspondent of Agence France-Presse and Radio France Internationale, Amadou Diallo, the BBC’s correspondent and Mamadou Ba journalist of the satirical newspaper Le Lynx are roughed up by soldiers covering the violent dispersal of an opposition meeting in which more than hundred persons died in September, 28 2009.

“It is unacceptable that these journalists who witnessed manhandling are taken for scapegoats” said Gabriel Baglo, Director of IFJ Africa Office. “We condemn all kinds of threats against the journalists and medias” he added.

On September 28, 2009, Mouctar, Amadou, Mamadou and several other colleagues made a large cover of the bloody repression of the meeting organized by the opposition at Conakry Stadium which made more than hundred dead, more than 1200 wounded of which several women raped publicly. The journalists were maltreated, death threatened and insulted by a group of soldiers in order to reduce them to silence before picking their money and mobile phones.

After being informed by relatives that the soldiers wanted them and feeling their lives in danger, Mouctar Bah and Amadou Diallo, are currently in hiding, which constitutes a serious obstacle to the free exercise of their job.

IFJ calls Guinean Judiciary authorities to quickly investigate, identify, try and punish the culprits of the violence against the journalists and holds the military junta the responsible of all that would arrive to our colleagues. “In that a tense context all measures must be taken to guarantee the safety of journalists”.

For more information contact the IFJ at +221 33 867 95 87
The IFJ represents over 600,000 journalists in 123 countries worldwide