Coverage critical of the Niger government's handling of lethal attacks by armed nomadic Tuareg rebels in the country's north led authorities to close the private bimonthly newspaper Aïr Info beginning last month, for a period of three months.

The newspaper's director was detained Thursday by police as he attempted to relaunch the paper this week under the new name Info Aïr.

Ibrahim Manzo Diallo was questioned by authorities for 45 minutes. The newspaper is accused by Niger's state-run High Council on Communications of publishing articles “undermining the morale of troops,” according to a fax sent to Aïr Info, Diallo told the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Aïr Info was the only newspaper in the central town of Agadez, about 460 miles northeast of Niger's capital, Niamey. Communications council member Mamane Mamadou told CPJ that state regulators have also issued formal warnings to Niamey private weeklies Le Démocrate, L'Evénement, Libération, and Opinion for “directly reproducing news taken from the rebels' Web sites, without any professional treatment.”

CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said closing the newspaper is “a crude attempt at censoring information about the Tuareg rebels,” according to a statement. “Niger has a history of reacting to criticism by silencing the messenger.”