In early 2007, a
Tuareg based insurgency began in the north of the country. Tensions with foreign press ensued, and journalists were banned from reporting from the northern
Agadez Region in June 2007. Kaka, as Radio France International's correspondent, was especially affected. RFI was banned from reporting from or broadcasting in Niger in June, as the government claimed they were biased towards the rebels. Kaka publicly claimed that his life was threatened on 14 July by the head of the
Niger Armed Forces General
Moumouni Boureima at a reception at the home of the French Ambassador to Niger. On 20 September 2007, Kaka was arrested after conducting three telephone interviews one of the leaders of the Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ), one of the rebel groups, during his work as Niger correspondent of
Radio France International. The
Government of Niger recorded these telephone conversations and arrested Kaka for "complicity in endangering the security of the state". These charges correspond to
treason, and carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. The initial charges were accepted, but the State Prosecuting Magistrate for the Niamey Region on 16 November 2007 refused to accept taped conversations as evidence, on the grounds that they were obtained illegally. The Nigerien Supreme Court conversely ruled in February 2008 that these tapes could be used as evidence. The Court further ruled that Kaka's rights were not breached by either the surveillance, the
detention without trial, or the nature of the charges. On 23 June 2008, the prosecuting
Magistrate ruled the Kaka could be provisionally released pending trial, a ruling that was immediately appealed by the government, meaning that the defendant remained imprisoned. One month later, the Magistrate ordered that his office drop all charges against Kaka, a ruling which the government also immediately appealed. On 19 August, the Niamey Appeals Court overturned the Magistrate's decisions. On 7 October 2008 he was freed by the Niamey Magistrate's court provisionally, while awaiting trial.
International campaign Kaka has been at the center of a campaign in
France and elsewhere demanding his freedom, spearheaded by Radio France International and its CEO
Alain de Pouzilhac,
Reporters Without Borders (both organisations for which Kaka is Niger Correspondent) and
Amnesty International, as well as Nigerien press groups including The Nigerien National Union of Press Workers (SYNATIC) and Le Republicain newspaper.
Other government actions While Kaka has received the longest imprisonment for a journalist since the beginning of the
Tuareg rebellion in February 2007, several other cases have come to the attention of the international media. French journalists
Thomas Dandois and
Pierre Creisson were detained in
Agadez for a month in 2007 by Nigerien military forces before being released. The editor of the
Niamey's
L'Evénement weekly was arrested on 30 July 2008, charged with “divulging a defence secret" after reporting that an army officer had been linked to an arms cache that was discovered in the capital. The Government press regulation body, the High Council for Communication (CSC) closed Niamey based TV and radio station
Dounia TV for one month in August 2008, and closed for an indefinite period
Sahara FM, the main radio station in
Agadez on 22 April 2008 for broadcasting interviews with people who had claimed they were the victims of abuses by government troops. In June 2007, Agadez weekly
Aïr-Info was closed by the government for three months, while at the same time sending formal warnings to three other newspapers (Libération, L’Opinion and L'Evènement) for reporting on the conflict in the north, which the government said were “trying to justify criminal activity and violence.” Aïr-Info editor
Ibrahim Manzo Diallo, after attempting to open a new weekly paper, was arrested and released. One of his reporters was also arrested in
Ingal in October, and in October Diallo was arrested trying to board a flight to Europe and charged with "membership of a criminal gang" Diallo was released pending trial in February 2008. == Since imprisonment ==