Two Senegalese journalists in Dakar arrested after they published an article on the troubled Casamance region ahead of talks this weekend between the government and separatists have been freed, it was announced Saturday.
The journalists, both from the independent Le Populaire daily, were arrested Thursday and released after 24 hours, the newspaper's management said.
The two, Mamadou Thierno Talla and Sidy Diop, were questioned after the newspaper published an article on Casamance, an editor said.
The Dakar government has been fighting separatists in Casamance for the last 18 years. Face-to-face peace talks -- the first under the government of President Abdoulaye Wade -- were to begin Saturday, in Ziguinchor, the capital of the province.
Announcing talks were to be held, the Wade government warned against "attacks on national unity by propaganda ... in favor of the separatists."
The warning was taken by many here as a threat against press freedom.
Wade himself last week said press freedom "had its limits."
The Paris-based press rights association Reporters sans Frontiers (Reporters without Borders) sent a letter of protest to the interior ministry in Dakar, while the local journalists' union, SYNPICS, called for a mobilization against censorship of the media -- DAKAR (AFP)
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