Togo: Plea for press freedom

Dakar - An international media watchdog group has urged Togo's new president to end a clampdown on several suspended local radio stations and protect other broadcasters whose offices were burned down and ransacked after tense elections last month.

The committee to protect journalists (CPJ) said in a letter addressed to President Faure Gnassingbe it was "deeply troubled by ongoing government censorship and attacks on private media in the aftermath of the April 24 presidential election".

Gnassingbe's office could not be reached for comment.

Authorities in the tiny West African nation banned all private radio and television stations from covering the vote, leaving the task to state media.

Many private media organisations in Togo are linked to the opposition.

The New York-based watchdog group said "at least three radio stations in the capital, Lome, have been shuttered by authorities.

"A fourth has complained that its broadcasting signal is being scrambled and two other radio stations were ransacked and torched during violent riots that followed the election."

Authorities also cut local transmissions of Radio France Internationale, widely listened to in French-speaking African nations like Togo where literacy rates are low.

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