BAMAKO, Mali (AP) The editor-in-chief of a popular news portal in Mali says he took down an Associated Press article detailing crimes allegedly committed by Mali's military, after receiving two threatening phone calls and an email from Mali's government.
The Paris-based editor says the Malian ministries of defense and communication said in separate calls they would block his website in Mali, effectively shutting down his business.
Sega Diarrah, the editor of Maliactu.net, said he published on Tuesday a summary of an AP article released this week, detailing how a team of AP reporters found the bodies of six ethnic Arabs allegedly killed by Mali's military in Timbuktu in January and February. The military has denied killing them.
Diarrah says, "I was forced to take down the article."
