Video of press harassment goes viral

A wave of indignation sparked by a viral video of an altercation between a French officer and Togolese journalists forced the French Minister of Defense to sanction the French lieutenant.

Togolese journalists were outraged, on August 10, to see French officer Romuald Letondot, transferred by the French Ministry of Defense to the Chief of the Staff of the Armed Forces of Togo, intimidate and publicly threaten journalist Didier Ledoux while he was doing his job in the streets of Lomé. Ledoux writes for local daily paper Liberté.

Local journalists were also very disappointed initially in the lack of reaction from France condemning this flagrant violation of the freedom of the press.

Late in the evening after the altercation, the French Embassy in Togo released a statement, which Togolese media called "laconic", that made no mention of the gravity of the acts, attitude and words of the officer.

"There is nothing much to do except take the hit," said Zeus Aziadouvo, Director of Liberté. “The Togolese authorities will rally behind the Embassy of France and wait for this to die down."

According to Aziadouvo, diplomats behave just as the authorities in Togo do. They do not move or say anything, and their communication is opaque.

Ordinarily in Togo, things would have gotten stuck at this stage. France wouldn’t have reacted any further. Another violation of press freedoms would have been overlooked. Fortunately, however, Noel Kokou Tadegnon, Reuters correspondent in Togo, filmed the altercation.  While Ledoux’s photos were deleted, Tadegnon’s video survived.

And unfortunately for Letondot and France, the video has raced around the world.

Posted first on the account of Tadegnon on Facebook, the video was then posted on YouTube through LeTogovi's account on Wednesday morning (August 11).

"I'm just posting it to amplify its spread because we’re mostly unable to make ourselves heard as far as the political situation of Togo is concerned, "argued LeTogovi.

Before the end of the day, the video had already been viewed over 100,000 times.

According to Tadegnon, who made the video, whenever there is this kind of incident, the mainstream media refuse the images.

"I’m not going to propose this to Reuters, for whom I work often. I'll throw it directly on Facebook.