Almany Kalla Conté, a reporter of the Lynx – La Lance press group, questioned and detained for several hours by the Police at Kaloum, the administrative area of Conakry, the capital of Guinea.Conté had gone to a train station at Kaloum to cover an alleged rail theft incident and was taking photographs of the place when two gendarmes and two policemen accosted him and ordered him to produce his work permit.
The four men took Conté to the Police station and subjected him to long hours of interrogation after which Commandant Camara, Commissioner of the Police station in Kaloum, ordered Conté’s detention under the pretext of being rude and refusing to answer all the questions asked him. Following Camara’s instructions, the reporter was about to be put in police cells when the Technical Director of Port Autonome de Conakry (Autonomous Port of Conakry), who happened to be at the police station at that time intervened by seeking the opinion ofAliou Condé,Guinea’s Minister of Transport, on phone.
Even though the Minister ordered Contés immediate release, Commandant Camara continued to detain the reporter for hours on the premises of the Police station and released him after several hours but not before Camara had insulted and given Conté “lessons in journalism”.
