Confinement of press professionals: Some journalists are making the step up

The world of press is boiling again. The situation has been getting tenser since journalist Radio Fahazavana’s reporter Lolo Ratsimba, and director, Didier Ravoahangiarison’s jail sentence related to the Support Regiment’s aborted mutiny back to the end of December. 

Journalists have erected a crisis cell anew. Some professionals already met the Justice minister to require the immediate and unconditional release of their colleagues. 

Judicial authorities are avoiding to openly linking both of Radio Fahazavana’s reporters’ custody to breach of press rules. Lolo Ratsimba is charged with “complicity” in a mutiny case, for having failed to alarm the authorities although being the first outsider on the scene at 04:00 a.m. 

The Justice’s argument is definitely being rejected by journalists making it a cover for hindrances of press freedom. “Can a scoop, now, drive into jail?” regretted a journalist. Lolo Ratsimba and his director have not been the first reporters sent in jail since Andry Rajoelina’s led putsch. In April 2009, Radio Mada’s Evariste Ramanantsoavina, jailed by the High Authority of Transition, has celebrated his third week behind bars.