Nigerien journalist Oumarou Abou Kané was detained on November 1, 2025, on accusations of sending an invitation to a government news conference to an exile who worked for ousted President Mohamed Bazoum, then charged under Niger’s cybercrime law. Kané, owner of Le Hérisson satirical newspaper, was also detained on October 30, but released later that day.
On November 3, Kané, Ibro Chaibou, a newsroom manager with the Radio Télévision Saraounia (RTS) group, and Youssouf Sériba, publishing director of Les Échos du Niger news site, were remanded in southern Niger’s Kollo prison.
The same day, an investigating judge in the capital, Niamey, charged the three men and three other journalists with “disseminating data likely to disturb public order,” a cybercrime with a penalty of up to five years in jail, CPJ was told by their lawyer, Boudal Effred Mouloul, and two people with knowledge of the case, on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisals.
The others are:
● Moussa Kaka, CEO, RTS;
● Abdoul Aziz Idé, RTS news presenter;
● Souleymane Oumarou Brah, publishing director, La Voix du Peuple newspaper.
Chaibou has been in detention since October 30, while the other five and an unnamed RTS driver were detained that day by Niamey judicial police, questioned, and released after several hours, then rearrested on November 1.
On November 3, the driver was freed without charge, along with Kaka, Brah, and Aziz, who were placed under judicial supervision.
In 2024, Niger’s head of state, Abdourahamane Tchiani, who overthrew the democratically elected Bazoum presidency in 2023, increased the sentences for cybercrimes, which have since been used regularly to detain journalists.
On October 29, Hamid Amadou N’gadé, a former communications adviser to Bazoum, published on Facebook a news conference invitation from the Solidarity Fund for the Safeguarding of the Homeland (FSSP), which was set up in 2023 to finance the state’s anti-terrorism fight. In the post, N’gadé said that the government was going to officially announce mandatory deductions on salaries and mobile money transfers — which it did.
N’gadé was one of several of Bazoum’s allies who were stripped of their nationality in 2024.
The two people with knowledge of the case told CPJ that Kaka had received the invitation and sent it to Chaibou, who shared it in a WhatsApp group with Sériba, Kané, and Brah, who are regular co-debaters on Saraounia TV’s weekly “Club de la presse” show, which Chaibou hosts.
CPJ’s calls in November 2025 to the Nigerien police, FSSP, and the Ministry of Communication went unanswered.