(WAN/IFEX) – According to WAN, on 12 February 1998, the N’Djamena correctional tribunal sentenced Yaldet Begoto Oulatar and Dieudonne Djonabaye, director and chief editor respectively of the newspaper “N’Dajmena Hebdo.” The two journalists received two-year suspended prison sentences and fines of 100,000CFA for defaming the President of the Republic of Chad, Colonel Idriss Deby. The […]
(WAN/IFEX) – According to WAN, on 12 February 1998, the N’Djamena
correctional tribunal sentenced Yaldet Begoto Oulatar and Dieudonne
Djonabaye, director and chief editor respectively of the newspaper
“N’Dajmena Hebdo.” The two journalists received two-year suspended prison
sentences and fines of 100,000CFA for defaming the President of the Republic
of Chad, Colonel Idriss Deby. The court also ordered the two newspapermen to
pay a symbolic sum of 1CFA as compensation. The claim arose from the article
“Deby, a Partisan President” (“Deby, un president partisan”) in issue number
308, published on 11 December 1997.
WAN believes that the criminal law, together with its sanctions of fines and
imprisonment, is an entirely inappropriate system by which to judge cases of
libel, as the civil law provides adequate financial compensation for injury
to feelings or reputation. Indeed, the United Nations Commission on Human
Rights considers that “detention, as punishment for the peaceful expression
of an opinion, is one of the most reprehensible ways to enjoin silence and,
as a consequence, a grave violation of human rights.”
Recommended Action
Send appeals to authorities:
decision, which is a clear act of intimidation to all members of the Chadian
independent press, is reversed
to power in 1990 that he would not bring proceedings against a newspaper
Appeals To
His Excellency Colonel Idriss Deby
President of the Republic
N’Djamena, Chad
Fax: +235 51 4501
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
