(IFJ/IFEX) – The following is a 30 April 2002 IFJ press release: IFJ condemns unfair verdict against two journalists in Senegal The International Federation of Journalists, the world’s largest journalists’ organisation, is stunned by the Dakar Tribunal’s verdict last week, sentencing two journalists to four months’ imprisonment with no parole and a fine of three […]
(IFJ/IFEX) – The following is a 30 April 2002 IFJ press release:
IFJ condemns unfair verdict against two journalists in Senegal
The International Federation of Journalists, the world’s largest journalists’ organisation, is stunned by the Dakar Tribunal’s verdict last week, sentencing two journalists to four months’ imprisonment with no parole and a fine of three million CFA francs.
Journalists Mamadou Oumar Ndiaye and Pape Ndiaye, publication director and reporter, respectively, with the private weekly Le Témoin, were accused of “defaming” and “insulting” the director of a Dakar-based Catholic private school in an article published in September 2001. According to Mamadou Oumar Ndiaye, who was contacted by the coordinator of the IFJ’s Africa Bureau, journalist Pape Ndiaye merely published the remarks of “union members who accused the Catholic private school director of being a slave driver and a racist.”
The same case will be tried a second time on 6 June, because the plaintiff had filed two separate complaints. Le Témoin could be sentenced a second time. Lawyers for the weekly’s publication director have decided to appeal the first ruling.
“The sentence is disproportionate to the charges,” noted IFJ General Secretary Aidan White. “Moreover, the second trial and the possibility of a second sentence highlight a serious defect in Senegalese legislation.”
The IFJ calls on the Senegalese authorities to do everything possible to ensure that, in the future, journalists are not thrown in prison because of their writings or ideas.
The IFJ is the world’s largest journalists’ organisation, with 500,000 members in 103 countries.
