Two French directors detained in Togo: RSF calls for their immediate release

Gaël Mocaër and Sebastian Perez Pezzani, two French directors of the show Les routes de l'impossible broadcast on France Télévisions, have been detained in Togo since their arrest on July 27. They had been arrested with Fred Vedomey, their Togolese fixer and media collaborator, while they were filming an episode of the documentary series in this West African country.

After being placed under house arrest, the three men were placed in pre-trial detention and charged with “false declarations” on August 17, according to Reporters Without Borders. They are held at the Agoè Logopé camp, near Lomé. This Wednesday, the director general of RSF, Thibaut Bruttin, called for “their immediate release”.

One of the directors is ill

The families of the two directors expressed their concern in the RSF press release. “We are devastated by the deprivation of liberty suffered by our companions, our fathers, our sons and our brothers in Togo,” they declared, adding that their “concern is immense, particularly for their health.” Sebastian Perez Pezzani suffers in particular from “serious health problems, requiring immediate treatment”, according to RSF. Patrice Lucchini, general manager of Tony Comiti Productions, says that “he is sick” and that he “risks septicemia”.

According to Patrice Lucchini, the arrest took place “on the side of Kara, where they passed an area” which had been recommended to them. However, he assures that the production was “in order”, specifying that the directors had obtained “filming authorization” from the Ministry of Culture and declared their equipment to customs.

Togo says it has not received a filming request

The High Regulatory Authority for Written, Audiovisual and Digital Communication (HARC) of Togo states for its part that it has not received “any request for accreditation concerning these two people, neither by France Télévisions, nor by the interested parties themselves, as provided for in the texts”. She also said that she had not been “informed of the arrival in the territory of the two people whose professional status she is unaware of, nor of the filming activities that they were expected to carry out, particularly in the northern part of the country”.

The HARC now considers that it is up to justice to determine “the circumstances of the presence of the persons concerned on the national territory, the nature of their activities as well as, where applicable, the facts with which they are accused”. Togo, led since 2005 by Faure Gnassingbé after 38 years of power under his father Eyadéma, occupies 97th place out of 180 countries in the annual press freedom ranking established by Reporters Without Borders.