Gabon crackdown slammed

LIBREVILLE – International media watchdogs on Friday criticised Gabon’s media council for temporarily closing down six newspapers for up to three months on the grounds they had breached professional ethics.

‘While the climate is already difficult for the Gabonese press – some journalists complain of pressure and threats – [this decision] is shameful because it only punishes pluralist forms of expression,’ said a statement from Reporters Sans Frontieres (Without Borders).Gabon’s National Council for Communication (CNC) on Wednesday suspended six independent papers for ‘violations of the principles of professional conduct and ethics’ and warned two others ‘to respect the regulations’.’Gabonese media for the most part pass on rumours and become accomplices by amplifying them,’ the CNC added, singling out the six papers which it suspended on Tuesday. Journalists said that each of the targeted newspapers had been sceptical about the outcome of recent elections.RSF accused the council of political bias after the election victory on August 30 of President Ali Bongo Ondimba, the son of Omar Bongo who ruled the oil-rich central African country for 41 years until his death in June.’Clearly, this regulatory organ, whose independence vis-à-vis the Libreville authorities is disputed, doesn’t tolerate that the [election] results are commented on nor that members of the government or the ruling party are criticised,’ RSF said.Nkuu le Messager was banned from publication for a month over an article called ‘And the monarchy is installed in Gabon,’ which spoke of ‘a parody of democracy’.The bimonthly Les Echos du Nord, the satirical papers Le Scribouillard and Le Crocodile, as well as the newspapers L’Ombre and La Nation, were also among the banned papers. Les Echos du Nord was suspended longest, for three months.’With these sanctions, albeit temporary, the opposition press, critical or satirical, is reduced to almost nothing,’ RSF concluded.In another communiqué received on Friday by AFP, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, said it also ‘condemns’ the decisions by the CNC.’This unprecedented suspension of the private press is intended to silence any potential critics of the election process,’ said CPJ Africa Programme Co-ordinator Tom Rhodes. ‘The council should immediately lift all of the suspensions.’-Nampa-AFP