Temporary release refused for Fahazavŕna's reporters27/01/2010 | 14:59:28
Both of Radio Fahazavŕna's reporters will have to remain behind bars. Their demand for temporary release has been rejected by the Court.
Lolo Ratsimba and Didier Ravoahangiarison, from the FJKM protestant church's Radio Fahazavàna radio station, have been in jail for three weeks so far.
A demand for temporary release has been rejected by judges in charge of the file. The advent of the High Authority of Transition, directed by Andry Rajoelina, has been leading three journalists directly in jail. The others are entitled to threats and deterrents. A crisis cell has been put in place by the capital city's journalists in order to require enhancement for journalists' working conditions, as well as the release of their colleagues.
Acrisis cell's meeting took place on Tuesday January 26th. The next months will be unveiling a certain number of actions meant to attract the authorities' attention.
The Fahazavàna radio station's Lolo Ratsimba and Didier Ravoahangiarison have been charged with "complicity" in an aborted military camp's mutiny case. Lolo Ratsimba was indeed the first reporter to have reached the scene, as Didier Ravoahangiarison would have had a CD of the call produced by the master sergeant who would have orchestrated the mutiny attempt.
Reporters have been especially invited together with artists and Malagasy sport figures to greet the president of the High Authority of Transition. Rufin Rakotomaharo, the latest president of the Journalists´ Order, produced a speech on behalf of his colleagues, in which he called upon more press freedom, the authorization to reopen TV and radio stations closed by the ruling power and the ending of the so called press crimes[See]
The TV PLUS private media station received an official warning letter. A reporter is being wanted by the state police, and not any of the stations silenced in the aftermaths of the year 2009´s putsch have been allowed to broadcast again. Hard days for the press.[See]
A number of reporters are currently in the communication ministry´s sight in the run of its intention to restore “order” in the press. The ministry´s ethics commission is so far being acting since some weeks. Minister Harry Rahajason met some of the capital city´s reporters and declared that sanctions are likely to sanction any violation of ethics and laws.[See]
Poor first step in for the Communication Ministry´s Ethics Committee. The election of the committee´s president supposed to endorse the Journalists´ order´s leadership, had to be postponed, for some members defected[See]
The minister in charge of communication is considering the erection of an ethics committee deemed to temporarily overtake the journalists’ order’s prerogatives up to the election of a new board[See]
