On October 30, 2025, Ibro Chaibou. a newsroom manager with the Radio Télévision Saraounia (RTS) group, was detained on accusations of sending an invitation to a government news conference to an exile who worked for President Mohamed Bazoum before he was overthrown by the military in 2023.
The same day, five other journalists and an unnamed RTS driver were detained by Niamey judicial police, questioned, and released. On November 1, all six were rearrested. The journalists were:
* Youssouf Sériba, Les Échos du Niger news site’s publishing director
* Oumarou Abou Kané, Le Hérisson satirical newspaper’s owner
* Moussa Kaka, CEO, RTS
* Souleymane Oumarou Brah, publishing director, La Voix du Peuple newspaper
* Abdoul Aziz Idé, RTS news presenter.
On November 3, an investigating judge in the capital, Niamey, charged Chaibou, Sériba, and Kané with “disseminating data likely to disturb public order,” a cybercrime with a penalty of up to five years in jail, their lawyer, Boudal Effred Mouloul told CPJ. Chaibou, Sériba, and Kané were remanded in southern Niger’s Kollo prison. The driver was freed without charge, along with Kaka, Brah, and Aziz, who were placed under judicial supervision.
The charge related to authorities’ allegation that the journalists had sent an invitation letter to the news conference to Hamid Amadou N’gadé, Bazoum’s former communications adviser, Mouloul said.
On October 29, N’gadé, one of several of the ex-president’s allies who were stripped of their nationality in 2024 — published the letter on Facebook. N’gadé correctly predicted in his comments that the government would announce at the news conference mandatory deductions on salaries and mobile money transfers by the Solidarity Fund for the Safeguarding of the Homeland (FSSP). The Fund was set up in 2023 to finance the state’s anti-terrorism fight
Kaka received the press invitation and sent it to Chaibou, who shared it in a WhatsApp group with Sériba, Kané, and Brah, regular co-debaters on Saraounia TV’s weekly “Club de la presse” show, hosted by Chaibou, two people with knowledge of the case told CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisals.
On August 28, 2026, Chaibou was provisionally released after 10 months in detention, Mouloul said. Sériba and Kané had already been freed.
In 2024, Niger’s military head of state, Abdourahamane Tchiani increased the sentences for cybercrimes, which have since been used regularly to detain journalists.
CPJ’s calls in November 2025 to the Nigerien police, FSSP, and the Ministry of Communication went unanswered.