RADIO KAYIRA JOURNALIST ARRESTED, THEN FREED

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAMAKO 000026 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/13/2019 TAGS: KDEM PGOV PHUM ML SUBJECT: RADIO KAYIRA JOURNALIST ARRESTED, THEN FREED REF: BAMAKO 479 Classified By: Political Counselor Peter Newman, Embassy Bamako, for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (SBU) Summary: On December 31, 2009, police in Kita, Mali, arrested Noumouke Sidibe, a journalist for the opposition Radio Kayira group of radio stations. Local authorities accused Sidibe of having used his radio show to incite the July 15, 2009 riots in Kita that occurred following the shooting and death of a mini-bus driver by a Gendarme (see reftel). Sidibe was released by an investigative judge in Kayes, Mali on January 6, 2010, after Radio Kayira provided recordings of its broadcasts in Kita showing that Sidibe was not on the air during the period in question. Sidibe, who has provoked the ire of officials in Kita by criticizing government projects, is the latest in a series of Radio Kayira personalities who have been arrested and held on dubious charges. End Summary. SUSPICIONS AND PROOF ¶2. (SBU) On July 15, 2009, youth angry about the shooting and death of minibus taxi driver by a Gendarme rioted in Kita, attacking the courthouse, city hall, and other symbols of the state (reftel). In the aftermath of the rioting, numerous police officers accused Noumouke Sidibe of inciting rioters and directing them to specific targets on his radio program. Sidibe, a journalist for the opposition Radio Kayira group of radio stations, admitted being in Kita on July 15, but denied inciting the riots and claimed he was never on the air that day. Sidibe had, however, become an outspoken and recognized critic of local authorities, having frequently accused local leaders of corruption and real estate speculation. Just before the riots in Kita, Sidibe had led a campaign against the granting of a logging concession in a forest near Kita to a Chinese firm. ¶3. (SBU) Oumar Mariko, the national director of Radio Kayira and president of the opposition political party African Solidarity for Democracy and Independence (SADI),brought Sidibe to Bamako in order to help him avoid arrest. According to a press release issued by Radio Kayira, Sidibe was in Bamako to wait for tensions in Kita to cool. After discussions with local authorities, during which Mariko provided cassette recordings of Radio Kayira's broadcasts on July 15, Sidibe returned to Kita on December 31. He was arrested the same day, based on thetestimony of a community elder that he had seen Sidibe amongst the rioters on July 15. ¶4. (SBU) On January 6, 2009, PolOff met with the operational director of Radio Kayira, Mahamadou Diarra, to discuss Radio Kayira,s difficulties with Malian authorities. The meeting was frequently interrupted by telephone calls from Kayes, where Sidibe was being held and where Oumar Mariko was undertaking efforts to secure his release. Diarra said the Prosecutor in Kita had determined the testimony of the community elder was not sufficient to prove incitement to rioting, as Sidibe had admitted to going to the site of the rioting in his capacity as a journalist. Diarra said further that an investigative judge in Kayes was at that very minute listening to the cassette recordings of Radio Kayira's broadcast on July 15, and had promised that Sidibe would be released if no compromising material was found. After approximately one hour had passed, Diarra's cellular phone rang again and after taking the call he informed that the judge had found Sidibe's voice was on none of the recordings and he had not been on the air on July 15. Diarra said the court's personnel were in the process of completing Sidibe's paperwork for release. IRRESPONSIBLE JOURNALISM NOT AGAINST THE LAW ¶5. (C) Sidibe is the latest in a series of Radio Kayira personalities who have found themselves in difficulty with the authorities. At the meeting on January 6, Diarra told PolOff, &there is not a single member of the Radio Kayira management that has not been in jail at one time or another,8 if only for a few hours. Also present at the meeting was Nouhoum Keita, who was arrested February 26, 2009 and remained behind bars at Bamako's Central Prison until April 15, 2009. Several months earlier, Keita had been interrogated because a false passport issued in his name had been used in conjunction with a gold dust scheme in which an Indian national had been defrauded. The victim of the scheme told the investigating judge that Keita was not the person who had swindled him, and the judge allowed Keita to return home. ¶6. (C) Diarra said that on February 25, when Keita told his story on Radio Kayira, expressed his suspicion that government officials were involved in the gold dust scheme and stated his intention to file a lawsuit to learn the identity of those officials, he was placed under arrest. Although released on April 15, 2009, Keita's case remains open. According to Keita, each time he has inquired into its status, he has been told "to let it go." Another meeting participant was Amadou Nanco Mariko, who spent over a month in jail in 2006 in a case Reporters Without Borders denounced as "disproportionate" punishment. Mariko and five others were convicted of broadcasting without authorization. Their defense was that the law gave the government only 15 days to approve or disapprove their request for a license, and the government took no action within one year. The six Radio Kayira personalities appealed the sentence, and three years later their case remains open. ¶7. (C) Comment: Radio Kayira is an opposition station and goes out of its way to be provocative. Many of its accusations against the government are outrageous and later determined to be false. Irresponsible journalism though its programming may carry at times, Radio Kayira has a right to broadcast under Malian law and does not merit the repeated legal harassment and trumped up charges it has experienced at the hands of local authorities. The judicial process while certainly not without its own faults, appears to be protecting the journalists, to a certain extent. End comment. BARLERIN