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Let me remind you a little story which had happened on December 2008. The ministry of telecommunication closed Andry Rajoelina’s station: VIVA TV. The reason of this decision was because this station had broadcasted a 45 minutes video in which Didier Ratsiraka, former president of Madagascar, called Malagasy people for a coup.
Reaction: Andry Rajoelina called people of Antananarivo for a strike to get Viva TV back. At that time, Andry Rajoelina got thousands of followers who wanted to fight for his cause: freedom of speech, freedom of sharing news and information. Since the TGV leaders kept on adding their requests to end with a coup, many of his followers have changed their mind. Well, this is not what I will talk about in this article.
What I want to stress on is the problem that journalists and bloggers are facing now that Andry Rajoelina gots the “power”. Yes, all media corps, especially those who are not pro TGV, live through frights.
Some of blogger friends were “invited” by armed militaries… I meant, they were forced to delete all pics they have taken.
thierry_ratsiz had been questionned by the force army if the pics would be shared on internet, things that they do not want. After negociation, thierry-ratsiz could keep his camera after having deleted all the compromising pics.
r1lita twittered that Pakysse had lived the same situation.
Avylavitra witnessed more serious fright and wrote:
Miala any ny mpanaogazety, Tsy mila mpanao gazety eto. Miala sao tifiriko eo an.
Here come journalists. We don’t need them here. Go or I shoot.
We were all astonished when no MIDI Madagasikara newspaper were published on March 12th and MaTV did not transmit for hours on the same day. In fact, a group of people frightened to burn this media company. We have to admit that they were doing great job covering the crisis and trying to tell how things really happened. We can understand why the TGV do not like them.
Andry and I were trying to report on the TGV movement at 13 Mai at that time, and Sareraka said: “All journalists can join unless they disagree with our cause or support a specific person”.
So, where is the so called freedom of speech?
Pics from The Cyber Observer
March 28, the pro Ravalomanana were 15,000 to 20,000 to rally at Ambohijatovo Democracy Square. Right after the rally, on their way home, the crowd planned to pass by Analakely but the militaries started to fire. At the beginning they shot into the air and fired tear gas. Then, those militaries fired on the protesters.
I was unfortunately not in Ambohijatovo to see what really happened so I watched the news on local TV to know more about it but it seems like the media cannot stop changing the reality. There were a lot of divergence about the information.
When the TV plus announced that there were 22 injured from Analakely, MaTV said more than 30. @dadandry went to HJRA and confirmed that 34 wounded people were registered at this hospital.
TV plus announced that they were clashes between TGV supporters and pro Ravalomanana so the militaries had to open the fire to disperse the crowd. Though Le monde.fr did not mention those clashes.
I really needed to understand that detail, I meant that big difference, so I asked a blogger friend who witnessed the event to tell what really happened. Andry said that, after the rally in Ambohijatovo, the 20,000 pro Ravalomanana wanted to go down to Analakely, like they used to do before going home.
Pic from The Cyber Observer
Pic of Avylavitra
The first line arrived in front of the restaurant Planète when the militaries started to fire into the air then exploded tear gas. Suddenly, those militaries shot on the crowd. “I could see people laying down on the ground full of blood”, Andry said “but the most sad thing I’ve seen yesterday was, a little girl who cried because she could not find her mother”.
Pic from The Cyber Observer
I will tell you a personnal opinion on this, Andry Rajoelina does not want the crowd from Ambohijatovo go to the Place du 13 Mai because people will discover that these pro Ravalomanana are 3 or 4 times more numerous than the TGV protesters of few weeks ago.
Another personnal opinion, the militaries were told to fire on the crowd so these Ravalomanana followers will be afraid to come back to the general strike planned for next Monday.
Still a personnal opinion, Andry Rajoelina was (one more time) mistaken because now the whole world can see and understand his “real democracy”: getting the power through violences and frights, then letting criminals go freely out of jail, and now shooting on people because they are against his coup, …
As agreed, the pro Ravalomanana still made a rally at Ambohijatovo Democracy Square on wednesday. The number of the crowd has increased a lot. When on saturday, we said they were 3,000, on monday they were more than 6,000. Tuesday and wednesday, the crowd joining the fight against the coup were around 10,000. The park of Ambohijatovo was full.
The most exciting and encouraging thing for these Ravalomanana followers was the direct call made by their “President” (yes, for them, Ravalomanana is still the President) saying that he will be home soon. Marc Ravalomanana thanked his people who trust in him and who are ready to fight for him to come back, to fight for the Tanindrazana (ancestors land).
At 01.45 p.m., this 10,000 people went to Analakely. The pavement was compledely blocked. And when I noticed a bus which was still trying to cross the crowd, I could hear the people wacthing from the sidewalk stating that “When TGV protesters made a rally like this before, they would have attacked this bus”.
Nevertheless, they were clashes. A little group of teenagers (from the orange revolution camp) were throwing stones and insults to the crowd. Those pro TGV also took the pics of Ravalomanana from the hands of “their opponents” and teared them. When I tried to take pics, those little guys frightened to attack me and to destroy my camera. I could get a very short video anyway.
