Comoros
Comoran radio director released

afrol News, 6 December - According to information gathered by the French media watchdog Reporters sans Frontières (RSF), the director of the Comoran Tropic FM Cheikh Ali Cassim has been released after fourteen months in prison for broadcasting "his opinions".

RSF yesterday published that it had received information that Tropic FM radio station director Cheikh Ali Cassim had been released on 11 October 2001, after serving a fourteen-month prison term without parole. 

The media watchdog states they believe "the journalist was sentenced because of his opinions and should never have been incarcerated." The organisation recalls that in January 2000, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression Abid Hussain stated that as a sentence for the peaceful expression of an opinion, imprisonment constitutes a "serious human rights violation."

Arrested on 15 August 2000, Cassim was "illegally detained for forty-five days in a military camp before being transferred to the Moroni prison," according to the RSF statement. 

Reached by telephone by RSF, Cassim recalled that Tropic FM is the "only private radio station to produce news programmes," and that the authorities did not appreciate his "direct [approach] to presenting news." He also explained that his arrest might have been linked to his political activities.

Meanwhile, Radio Karthala director Izdine Abdou Salam, who was placed under a committal order by the Moroni Prosecutor's Office two days after his arrest, on 10 November, is still detained. RSF has urged the Comoran authorities to release the journalist. 

- Salam has still not been informed of the charge against him, RSF claims. He is allegedly charged with defamation. He had hosted a debate on Radio Karthala about a constitutional proposal that will be the object of a referendum on 23 December. 

Several contributors had severely criticised the text on the air. The police seized the tapes of the programme. Salam has previously been sentenced for "defamation" against the prime minister, and the tribunal barred him from broadcasting political programmes. 

According to a US government report, press freedom on Comoros is limited, though guaranteed for in the new Constitution. 

Sources: RSF, US govt. and afrol archives

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