Posted on 07/17/2010 1:39:14 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
Police in Ivory Coast have arrested three journalists after their newspaper published details of an inquiry into corruption in the cocoa industry.
Police seized the editor-in-chief, Saint-Claver Oula, and two other senior editors of Le Nouveau Courrier newspaper and charged them with theft of an official document. Oula also contributes to the Voice of America's French to Africa service.
Media rights group the Committee to Protect Journalists says the three editors were formally charged Friday after refusing to reveal their sources to Ivory Coast's state prosecutor.
CPJ says Oula has begun a hunger strike to protest his detention.
Le Nouveau Courrier this week published the findings of a government report into graft allegations in the cocoa industry.
A spokesman for a coalition of local professional journalist associations told CPJ that all newspapers in Ivory Coast are being asked to republish Le Nouveau Courrier's story on Monday as a sign of solidarity.
President Laurent Gbagbo launched an inquiry into the cocoa sector leading to the arrest in 2008 of 20 senior cocoa industry officials. The officials are still awaiting trial.
Seems familiar to an oil spill’s coverage or lack thereof..
Bizarre. This comes after a French story about somebody cornering the cocoa market. What the heck is going on?
Strangely in the US the papers can print secret documents even if they were stolen.
Mystery trader buys all Europe's cocoa
yitbos
It’s the Cocoa Conspiracy. ;^)
To bad that they don’t have a constitution like ours with First amendment right. It’s to bad that we are in the process to losing ours.
Thanks Kevmo for the link! Shouldn’t the place be called Cocoa Coast instead?
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