Niger jails two radio journalists for 'plotting'

Niger on Friday jailed two journalists who were part of a trio detained in early May for plotting against state authority, their employer told AFP.

Reporters have regularly been detained since a junta seized power in a 2023 coup, a practice denounced by free speech activists across the world.

The three journalists worked for the Sahara FM private radio and were arrested in the central city of Agadez.

They had reported that security contracts between the west African country and Russia -- a key junta ally -- had ended.

"A military court judge remanded the two men to Kollo prison," Sahara FM owner Air Info said on Friday, referring to a jail some 50 kilometres south of the capital Niamey.

The company said a third journalist had been provisionally released, adding that all three had been tried on charges of "undermining national defence and plotting against state authority".

Niger ranks 83rd out of 180 countries in the 2025 press freedom index of the NGO Reporters Without Borders.