Updated: September 8, 2005
Radio Brakos
CENSORED
The High Council of Communication (HCC), an official media regulatory body, suspended the broadcasting license of privately owned Radio Brakos, which is based in the southern town of Moissala. According to a press release issued by the radio station, the HCC said the suspension was due to "recurring conflicts between Radio Brakos and administrative and military authorities."
The HCC's decision to suspend the station's license followed a complaint from a local traditional leader, Philipe Gozo, whom Radio Brakos had accused on-air of pocketing money meant for a development project, according to Zara Yacoub, head of Chad's Union of Private Radio Stations. The union protested the station's suspension.
Earlier in May, a local military commander had threatened Tchanguis Vatankhah, director of Radio Brakos, according to a separate press release issued by the station. Yacoub told CPJ that the threat was in retaliation for reports aired by Radio Brakos that had criticized the commander.
It was not the first time Vatankhah had been the target of local authorities. In February 2004, police officers repeatedly and brutally assaulted the station director, and detained him for 48 hours without charge. According to local sources, Vatankhah's arrest was carried out on the orders of local Prefect Bouba Dalissou, who also ordered the radio station closed for three days.
On August 23, the HCC lifted the ban on the radio station. Radio Brakos resumed broadcasts soon afterwards, after participating in a weeklong news blackout organized by Chadian media organizations to protest the imprisonment of four local journalists on charges relating to their work. However, the station did not immediately restore some regular programs, including news commentary, according to a CPJ source.
JUNE 4, 2005
Posted: June 7, 2005
Ngaradoumbé Samory, L'Observateur
IMPRISONED
Chad's National Security Agency (ANS) arrested Samory, editor of the private weekly L'Observateur, which is based in the capital, N'Djamena. The following day he was transferred to the custody of the judicial police, before being released without charge on June 6 following protests from civil society and journalists' organizations.
According to local sources and media reports, ANS agents pressured Samory to disclose the name of the author of an open letter to President Idriss Déby that was published in L'Observateur under a pseudonym. The letter was written on behalf of detained members of a minority ethnic community known as the Kreda, who live in Chad's northwestern Kanem region. The government has accused the Kreda of plotting a rebellion, according to a CPJ source.
JULY 18, 2005
Updated: October 17, 2005
Garondé Djarma, freelance
IMPRISONED, LEGAL ACTION
Djarma, a freelance journalist and commentator who contributes frequently to local publications, was sentenced to three years in prison and one million CFA francs (about U.S. $1,764) in fines for defaming the president and "inciting hatred."
According to local sources, Djarma was charged in connection with a June 15 commentary in the private weekly L'Observateur in which he criticized President Idriss Déby and a controversial constitutional amendment allowing the president to stay in office for a third term, local sources said. The government announced on June 22 that voters approved the measure at a June 6 referendum, over the protests of opposition and civil society groups.
The same day, the newspaper's editor was sentenced to three months in jail in connection with an unrelated commentary. Djarma and the editor, Ngaradoumbé Samory, were jailed in the capital, N'Djamena, immediately after the sentencing, local sources said.
On June 21, Samory and Djarma were arrested, charged and imprisoned for two weeks pending their trial. The journalists were granted a provisional release on procedural grounds on July 4, sparking hopes that the prosecutor would drop the case.
Local journalists interviewed by CPJ said the arrests reflected a crackdown on critical media in the wake of the constitutional referendum.
On August 15, Djarma was sentenced to an additional one-year prison term for "inciting hatred" in an interview that ran in L'Observateur. In the interview, Djarma blamed the charges against him on a conspiracy of Arab members of the government, whom he referred to as "janjaweed." Publication director Sy Koumbo Singa Gali, who conducted the interview, was also sentenced to a year in jail.
On September 26, an appeals court in N'Djamena overturned both sentences against Djarma, citing procedural irregularities. Djarma was released the same day, along with Sy, whose sentence was also overturned.
JULY 18, 2005
Updated: October 17, 2005
Ngaradoumbé Samory, L'Observateur
IMPRISONED, LEGAL ACTION
Samory, editor of the private weekly L'Observateur, was sentenced to three months in prison and a fine of 100,000 CFA francs (about U.S.$176) on charges of defaming the president and "inciting hatred."
According to CPJ sources, Samory was charged in connection with L'Observateur's publication of an open letter to President Idriss Déby, local sources said. The letter was written under a pseudonym on behalf of members of a minority ethnic group known as the Kreda whom the government had detained and accused of mounting a rebellion. The letter criticized the government's treatment of the Kreda. Samory was asked to reveal the author's identity, but he refused to do so, local sources told CPJ.
The same day, a freelance contributor to the newspaper was sentenced to three years in jail in connection with an unrelated commentary. Samory and the contributor, Garondé Djarma, were jailed in the capital, N'Djamena, immediately after the sentencing, local sources said.
On June 21, Samory and Djarma were arrested, charged and imprisoned for two weeks pending their trial. The journalists were granted a provisional release on procedural grounds on July 4, sparking hopes that the prosecutor would drop the case.
The journalists' arrests coincided with that of Michaël Didama, publication director of the private weekly Le Temps, who was arrested on June 22 and criminally charged in connection with his journalistic work. Local journalists interviewed by CPJ said the arrests reflected a crackdown on critical media in the wake of a controversial constitutional referendum held on June 6. On June 22, the government announced that the public had voted in favor of a constitutional amendment to allow President Idriss Déby to remain in office for a third term. The referendum was heavily criticized by opposition and civil society groups.
On September 8, Samory was granted a provisional release from jail pending a decision in his appeal. On September 26, an appeals court in N'Djamena overturned Samory's sentence on procedural grounds, rendering his conviction null. Following decisions in their appeals, Djarma and Didama were released from prison the same day.
AUGUST 8, 2005
Updated: October 17, 2005
Michaël Didama, Le Temps
IMPRISONED, LEGAL ACTION
Michaël Didama, director of the private weekly Le Temps, was convicted on charges of defamation and incitement to hatred and sentenced to six months in jail in connection with articles describing rebel groups in eastern Chad, according to local sources.
The charges stemmed from May articles in Le Temps, one of which reported a resurgence of rebel movements in areas bordering the troubled Sudanese province of Darfur. The other described an alleged massacre of civilians in the same region, accompanied by a photograph of people said to be victims. According to local sources, the photograph was taken from the private news Web site Alwihda. Le Temps has stood by its stories.
The High Council of Communication, a local media regulatory body, had previously studied the articles in response to complaints from government officials, but decided in early June that the newspaper was not guilty of incitement, according to local sources.
Didama was arrested and criminally charged on June 22, then held in detention until July 11, when he was released on procedural grounds.
Didama is one of four journalists sentenced to prison this year. Ngaradoumbé Samory, editor-in-chief of the private weekly L'Observateur, and Garondé Djarma, a freelance writer, were sentenced to three months and three years in jail, respectively, in July. Sy Koumbo Singa Gali, publication director of L'Observateur, was sentenced to a year in jail on August 15.
Didama was released from prison on September 26, following a decision on his appeal by an appeals court in N'Djamena. The court upheld his conviction, but reduced his sentence to time served. The same day, Djarma, Samory and Sy had their convictions overturned by the court.
AUGUST 15, 2005
Updated: October17, 2005
Sy Koumbo Singa Gali, L'Observateur
Garondé Djarma, freelance
IMPRISONED, LEGAL ACTION
Chadian journalist Sy Koumbo Singa Gali was sentenced to one year in prison for "inciting hatred," the fourth reporter jailed in a month in what local journalists called a growing crackdown on the independent press.
A court in the capital N'Djamena convicted Sy, publication director of the privately owned weekly L'Observateur, after she published an interview with freelance journalist and government critic Garondé Djarma, her lawyer told CPJ.
The court on August 15 also handed Djarma a separate one-year prison sentence and fined Djarma and Sy 200,000 CFA francs (U.S. $380) each.
Djarma was sentenced on July 18 to three years in jail for defamation and "inciting hatred." Djarma criticized a July constitutional referendum allowing President Idriss Déby to run for a third term next year. In the interview with Sy he accused Arab "janjaweed" members of the Chadian government of conspiring to silence him because of his coverage of the conflict between Arabs and black Africans in the neighboring Darfur province of Sudan.
Sy's interview with Djarma appeared shortly before his conviction.
Sy's lawyer, Sobdjibe Zoua, told CPJ that the court did not specify whether Djarma's additional one-year term would run concurrently with his three-year sentence or consecutively.
Two other journalists were jailed for their work in what local journalists called a crackdown on the media—Michaël Didama, publication director of the private weekly Le Temps, and Ngaradoumbé Samory, publication director of L'Observateur.
On September 26, an appeals court in N'Djamena overturned both sentences against Djarma, citing procedural irregularities. The same court also overturned Sy's sentence on similar grounds, and both journalists were released the same day.
SEPTEMBER 2, 2005
Posted September 8, 2005
Laïssou Bagamala, freelance
IMPRISONED
Authorities in the capital N'Djamena jailed Bagamala, a former journalist for the private weekly L'Observateur, for three days in connection with an article published in the newspaper about a local property dispute, according to CPJ sources. Bagamala was accused of defamation but it is unclear if he was charged. Local journalists described his detention as riddled with procedural errors.
The arrest occurred during government crackdown on the independent press in Chad. When Bagamala was detained, four other independent journalists were serving jail terms of three months to three years in prison in connection with their work.
SEPTEMBER 25, 2005
Posted October 13, 2005
Tchanguis Vatankah, Radio Brakos
IMPRISONED
Chadian authorities arrested community radio station director Tchanguis Vatankah in southern Chad and announced they would expel him from the country, according to local sources. A native of Iran who had been living in Chad for several decades, Vatankah is the founder and director of Radio Brakos, a station in the remote southern town of Moissala that is known for its critical reporting.
CPJ has documented a pattern of harassment against Vatankah, and local journalists told CPJ that his arrest was linked to his work for Radio Brakos. According to local sources, the arrest was ordered by Security and Immigration Minister Routouang Yoma Golom. While Vatankah is married to a Chadian woman, he does not have Chadian citizenship, and his legal status is unclear, local sources told CPJ.
In May, Chad's High Council of Communication (HCC), an official media regulatory body, suspended Radio Brakos, citing "recurring conflicts between Radio Brakos and administrative and military authorities." In August, the HCC lifted the ban, but demanded that Vatankah no longer serve as the station's director, CPJ sources said.
In response, media organizations in N'Djamena sent a delegation to Moissala in mid-September to negotiate a compromise between local authorities and the station's management that would have allowed Vatankah to remain involved in the station's activities. Vatankah was arrested outside Moissala the day after this delegation returned to the capital, according to Evariste Toldé, a member of the delegation and the head of Chad's journalists' union.
In 2004, Vatankah was detained and badly beaten on the orders of a local government official after the journalist interviewed an opposition leader on the air; Vatankah still suffers from medical problems related to the assault. Vatankah has also received threats from local military officials and traditional leaders, according to local sources.