News agency correspondent freed

Rodrigo Angue Nguema, the AgenceFrance-Presse stringer in Malabo, was released on 11 November after being held for eight days at the city's main police station. He was arrested at his home on 3 November after he filed a story on 29 October reporting rumours that a coup d'état had been foiled. He remains under legal investigation, his lawyer said. ---------------------------------------------------- 05.11.2003 News agency reporter arrested The Agence France-Presse correspondent in Equatorial Guinea, Rodrigo Angue Nguema, was questioned by police in Malabo on 4 November as part of an investigation by the country's prosecutor-general. He is being held at police headquarters in Malabo. "The prime minister has asked the prosecutor-general to look into the origin of the rumour about a coup attempt," presidential foreign affairs adviser Miguel Oyono told AFP. "So far, the only source we have for it is this journalist." ------------------------------------------------- 05.11.2003 Reporters Without Borders expressed concern today about the arrest on 3 November of the Agence France-Presse news agency correspondent in Equatorial Guinea, Rodrigo Angue Nguema, and called for his immediate release. "We call on the authorities to explain why he is being detained and also to stop harassing him," said Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Robert Ménard. The journalist told Reporters Without Borders by telephone that he was arrested because of a story he filed on 29 October mentioning rumours of an attempted coup. He said he had received phone threats a few days earlier from someone close to the government who said he would prevent him from reporting on the president's activities because of his criticism of the government. Angue Nguema had been banned from the June 2002 trial of 144 people accused of "attacking the head of state" after presidential security officials accused him of having contacts with the defendants and police said he had walked on a out-of-bounds pavement near the courthouse. The journalist said he was targeted because he had taken too close an interest in the beating of the defendants.