The Committee to Protect Journalists is calling on the authorities in Cote d’Ivoire to drop their investigation into journalist Yao Alex Hallane Clément, and cease intimidating and harassing members of the press.

Police officers arrested Yao, a reporter with the privately owned PDCI 24 TV broadcaster, along with at least 20 other people at the home of opposition leader and former President Henri Konan Bédié in Abidjan, the capital on November 3.

They held him until November 10, according to the journalist, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview, as well as statements by the National Union of Press Professionals of Côte d’Ivoire (SYNAPP-CI), a local trade group, and by Richard Adou, the government prosecutor in the case.

Imoh Edet reports.