Burkina Faso

By Mathew Hansen

Hundreds of journalists have been killed over 15 years, many on the orders of government officials. Few cases are ever solved. In the Fall/Winter 2006 edition of Dangerous Assignments

By Tidiane Sy

New York, July 20, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is outraged by the decision of a judge in Burkina Faso to drop charges against the only suspect in the 1998 murder of a journalist probing criminal allegations against the president’s family.

Prosecutors said yesterday an examining magistrate had granted their request to drop the case against a member of the presidential guard indicted in the killing of Norbert Zongo, editor of the weekly L’Indépendant in the capital Ouagadougou. They said examining magistrate Wenceslas Ilboudo had dismissed charges against Warrant Officer Marcel Kafando, a member of the Presidential Guard Regiment, for lack of evidence. An independent commission of inquiry concluded in May 1999 that Kafando was one of six “serious suspects” in the murder.

APRIL 20, 2006

Antoine Bationo, Le Pays
Boureïma Jeremie Sigue, Le Pays
HARASSED

Security forces detained and questioned Antoine Bationo, a sports journalist for the private daily Le Pays, after he interviewed former soldiers accused of mounting a coup attempt, local sources told CPJ.