Ivorian Journalist Arrested At Refugee Camp

Information Reaching Daily Guide indicates that an Ivorian journalist, who allegedly travelled from Ivory Coast to the Ivorian refugee camp at Ampain in the Ellembelle District of the Western Region on Sunday to interview some of the refugees without the consent of the camp managers and the police, has been arrested. According to a reliable source at the refugee camp, the journalist, whose name was not immediately known, was aided to the camp by one of the refugees who used to communicate on phone with the Ivorian journalist in Abidjan to know what was going on at the camp. The source continued that the refugee, who had also been arrested, sneaked out of the camp last Sunday to meet the journalist from Abidjan, at the Elubo border and brought the man to the camp. Daily Guide gathered that immediately the Ivorian journalist got to the refugee camp, he started interviewing some of the refugees believed to be supporters of the country�s former president, Laurent Gbagbo, without the permission of the police or the camp managers. Sources said the police at Esiama heard about the presence of the journalist at the camp when one of the refugees, a court judge in Ivory Coast staying at the camp, got scared when the pressman went to interview him and quickly alerted the police who went to the camp and arrested the journalist. When contacted, DSP Kojo Nkansah, Axim District Police commander, confirmed the arrest of the journalist at the refugee camp but declined to mention his name. According to the District Police Commander, investigations conducted by his outfit revealed that the suspect was indeed a journalist working for �Fratenite Matin�, the Ivorian national newspaper. He noted that the suspect produced his identity (ID) card bearing his name and that of the organization he worked with. DSP Nkansah added that he even managed to speak with the editor of the newspaper in Ivory Coast on phone who confirmed that the suspect was an employee of the newspaper. The District Police Commander said the only offence the foreign journalist committed was not seeking permission from the appropriate quarters before conducting the interview at the refugee camp. He pointed out that the police were putting the necessary measures in place to ensure the safe repatriation of the Ivorian journalist to his home country.