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Two journalists with Niger's Le Republicain newspaper have been formally charged for spreading false news and defaming the state of Niger after alleging the government wanted to court Iran, one of them said Tuesday.
Mamane Abou, publisher of the independent weekly, and journalist Oumarou Keita were arrested on Friday and had been held in custody until appearing in court on Tuesday.
Abou said by telephone from inside the courtroom that they expected to be tried immediately on Tuesday (August 8).
The pair were arrested after the publication on July 27 of an article in Le Republicain which accused the prime minister of "wooing the Iranians" to the extent of being prepared to close down Western embassies and firms.
A free edition of the weekly distributed in Niamey at the weekend, in which the controversial article was reprinted, said the government was also angry at "revelations by Le Republicain of cases of bad management and embezzlement".
The paper has published a series of news articles in recent months alleging government corruption in education financing.
The stories prompted a donor audit in June which later led to Nigers ministers of health and education being sacked.
The latest opinion piece in Le Republicain suggested that the episode was prompting Amadou to reject Western donors in favor of nations such as Iran and Venezuela.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists called for the charges against the pair to be dismissed, describing their detention for "reporting on alleged corruption and expressing their views on the governments performance" as "outrageous".
An association of journalists' unions in Niger at the weekend protested against the journalists' arrest and accused the authorities of waging a campaign against the country's privately-owned media.
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AFP 081859 GMT 08 06
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