[2] Niger has a strong radio press, as high illiteracy rates and low television broadcast coverage make it the dominant news medium for much of the nation.

[3] Despite instances of arrest and detention of journalists, West African observers generally judge Nigerien press to be independent and lively in attacking the government.

The Nigerien government said that journalists were being investigated for breach of laws covering "the dissemination, by any communications means, of reports or allegations liable to cast doubt on national defence operations.

A public television broadcast during the coup attempt called Kaka and managing editor of Le Républicain Mamane Abou "stateless persons [...] working for the opposition".

[13][14] Kaka has been at the center of a campaign in France and elsewhere demanding his freedom, spearheaded by Radio France International and its CEO Alain de Pouzilhac, Reporters Without Borders (both organisations for which Kaka is Niger Correspondent)[15] and Amnesty International,[16] as well as Nigerien press groups including The Nigerien National Union of Press Workers (SYNATIC) and Le Republicain newspaper.

[18] The editor of the Niamey's L'Evénement weekly was arrested on 30 July 2008, charged with “divulging a defence secret" after reporting that an army officer had been linked to an arms cache that was discovered in the capital.

[19] The Government press regulation body, the High Council for Communication (CSC) closed Niamey based TV and radio station Dounia TV for one month in August 2008, and closed for an indefinite period Sahara FM, the main radio station in Agadez on 22 April 2008 for broadcasting interviews with people who had claimed they were the victims of abuses by government troops.