Three Nigerien journalists detained after broadcast on Russia military cooperation
PICTURE: Sahara FM journalists (from left) Hamid Mahmoud, Massaouda Jaharou and Mahaman Sani have been detained in Niger since 10 May 2025/Credit withheld, CPJ
Committee to Protect Journalists
Dakar
The CPJ calls on Nigerien authorities to swiftly and unconditionally release journalists Hamid Mahmoud, Massaouda Jaharou and Mahaman Sani, who work with the privately owned Sahara FM radio station, after they were arrested for the second time in four days on 10 May for broadcasting information about the country’s military co-operation with Russia.
‘[Their] repeated arrests … deepens a pattern of censorship on security-related subjects,’ said Moussa Ngom, CPJ’s Francophone Africa representative.
‘Nigerien authorities must stop criminalising journalism, immediately release all three of the Sahara FM journalists, and allow them to return to their newsroom.’
On 7 May, police officers in the northern city of Agadez initially arrested and questioned the journalists about their reporting that day on an alleged breakdown in co-operation between Niger and Russia, according to a person close to the case, who requested anonymity for safety reasons, and a statement by Aïr Info Agadez, the online news site owned by Sahara FM’s parent company.
An investigating judge released them without charge on 9 May, but they were re-arrested the next day.
The journalists’ reporting was based on a 5 May report by the privately owned, France-based news outlet LSi Africa. ‘They were questioned on who asked them to relay this information,’ the person close to the case said.
On 14 May, Agadez gendarmerie transferred the three journalists to the research brigade of the gendarmerie of Niamey, Niger’s capital.
Following a coup in 2023, CPJ and other rights groups raised concerns about press freedom in the country. In April 2024, Idrissa Soumana Maïga, Editor of the private newspaper, L’Enquêteur, was detained for more than two months for reporting on allegations that Russian agents had placed listening devices in public buildings.
Military authorities have also temporarily suspended or banned several international media outlets, including for coverage of the long-running jihadist insurgency in the country.
CPJ’s calls for comment to the police in Agadez and the gendarmerie’s public number went unanswered.
- This article was first published here
