Journalist Arrested, Detained Over COVID-19 Report

''On March 5, police arrested Kaka Touda, an independent journalist who publishes news reports on his Facebook and Twitter pages, at his home in Niamey, Niger’s capital, according to the journalist’s lawyer, Boudal Effred Mouloul, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app, and news reports.

His arrest stemmed from a complaint filed by the local General Reference Hospital, which alleged that Kaka Touda’s posts on social media on March 4 about a suspected COVID-19 case at the hospital posed a threat to public order, according to Boudal and Chaibou Samna, the public prosecutor in charge of the case, who spoke to CPJ over the phone.''