Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
10BAMAKO26
2010-01-15 12:08:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Bamako
Cable title:  

RADIO KAYIRA JOURNALIST ARRESTED, THEN FREED

Tags:  KDEM PGOV PHUM ML 
pdf how-to read a cable
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DE RUEHBP #0026/01 0151208
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R 151208Z JAN 10
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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).

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