Senegal daily run by jailed editor fined for defamation

Posted by Bertrand Pecquerie on July 16, 2004 at 5:26 PM

According to AFP, "Dakar's beleaguered independent Le Quotidien daily has been fined for defamation amid a week-long campaign to secure the release of its editor jailed on politically-motivated charges. A municipal court late Thursday found the daily guilty of publishing false information about former customs chief Boubacar Camara and slapped the managing editor, the jailed Madiambal Diagne, and publisher Mamadou Biaye with a 760-euros fine and a one-month suspended sentence... Diagne was jailed last week for publishing confidential reports and correspondence, false information and news "which could cause serious political problems". Diagne's incarceration has sparked outrage across Senegal, normally considered a bastion of democracy in Africa though it has been rapped of late for its inattention to press freedom by groups such as Amnesty International."

"Most of Dakar's independent press staged a news blackout, withholding their newspapers for two days and replacing regular radio programming with freedom songs and orations by Senegalese political leaders about press freedom.

The Dakar-based African human rights group known as Raddho "solemnly urged" Prime Minister Macky Sall to act diligently to secure the release of Diagne on behalf of a government that would do well to rethink laws and legal conventions that restrict freedom of the press.

International press watchdogs have also chimed in, with the World Newspaper Association and World Editors Forum, representing 18,000 publications in 100 countries, expressing "grave concerns" about Diagne's continued detention in a letter sent to President Abdoulaye Wade."

Source: AFP

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