Colleagues of a Guinean radio journalist who was attacked by unknown assailants on July 16 are suspecting the military of being behind the attack. Etienne Mansaré, a military reporter of privately-owned Conakry-based Sabari FM, was stabbed in the back while on his way home after signing off from his political programme "Sous le Cocotier."
"Mansaré must have been a victim of an action carried out by persons hostile to his reports possibly, it is a settlement of scores," according to a colleague of Mansaré who spoke to the Media Foundation for West Africa's (MFWA) correspondent in Guinea on condition of anonymity. The journalist told the correspondent from his sick bed that he joined a taxi cab in which the four men were already seated. Two of them pointed pistols at his head before stabbing him.
The correspondent said Mansaré was placed on the car and the assailants sped off, making him fall in the process. He became unconscious and was rescued by a passer-by who took him to the hospital. Mansaré's three cellular phones, dictaphone, press card and an unspecified amount of money were taken away.
MFWA condemned the act, "which undermines the safety of journalists and also serves as a setback for the progress being made for democratisation in Guinea." The organisation called on the authorities to investigate this act and bring the perpetrators to book.
