Police assault photojournalist

12 Mar 2012

The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities in Togo to investigate a report that police assaulted a photojournalist on Friday [9 March 2012] after he took photos of officers seizing a motorcycle during a protest, according to media reports and local journalists.

Koffi Djidonou Frédéric Attipou, a photojournalist with the weekly Le Canard Indépendant and the biweekly magazine Sika, told CPJ he was covering a protest over government human rights violations when he turned his camera to police confiscating a demonstrator's motorcycle nearby. Togolese police, facing numerous allegations of heavy-handed and abusive tactics, have had a number of recent confrontations with journalists covering their activities, according to news accounts and CPJ research.

Attipou said he suffered an eye injury when officers kicked him and struck him with batons. Two local press freedom groups, SOS Journaliste en Danger and Journalistes pour les Droits de l'Homme (JDHO), condemned the attack and called for an investigation.

Read the full story on www.ifex.org.