The editor-in-chief of Alerte Info, an internet news magazine, has been arrested in Côte d’Ivoire and detained for allegedly reporting that at least three people were killed during a prison riot in Abidjan recently. The police picked up Ebenezer Viwami, over the weekend for interrogation, his staff revealed.
“Our editor-in-chief was arrested by the police in front of MACA prison, where he was covering the prisoners protest. He was later dragged out and detained like a bandit,” Trésor Affri, the marketing director of Alerte Info told Africa News.com.
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He added: “We exhausted every means available to us to get him released but no way. This is an arbitrary arrest and detention because Mr. Viwami was exercising a professional duty.”
According to the services of the Ivorian Internal Affairs and Justice Ministries, Viwami fallaciously reported his coverage of the prisoners riot by mentioning that three prisoners were shot dead by the police; whereas the official report stated six slightly injured prisoners with no deaths recorded.The detained journalist would soon be arraigned before the prosecutor of Yopougon, the municipality where the incident occurred; and where he is currently in detention, at the Gendarmerie, according to AFP.
Affri deplored that his editor-in-chief was being detained in detestable conditions, like a roadside pickpocket. “They refused us paying him visit,” he said. “Even President Laurent Gbagbo reaffirmed last August that no journalist would be detained during his tenure of office.”
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) called for the immediate release of Viwami. “This arrest looks contradictory with the promise of President Laurent Gbagbo not to jail journalists for libel” said Gabriel Baglo, the director of IFJ Africa office.
