NIGER: Press groups demand journalists' release

Reporters Sans Frontieres and the association of independent press editors in Niger, ANEPI, have called for the release from detention of three media bosses accused of defamation by government officials. Publisher Abarad Mouddour of La Roue de l'histoire, and the private weekly's owner, Sanoussi Jackou, were arrested on 18 May after being accused of defamation by Niger's minister of trade, Seini Oumarou. Sanoussi also heads an opposition party. The third detainee, Abdoulaye Tiemogo, was arrested on 17 May, one week after conducting a radio show on the private Tambara FM. His guest, Jackou, had accused Prime Minister Hama Amadou of ethnic and regional bias in the nomination of high-ranking government officials, media sources said.