(MFWA/IFEX) – On 27 May 2005, managing editor Sydney B. Pratt and reporter Dennis Jones, of the independent weekly “Trumpet”, were charged with seditious libel by Magistrate Sam Margai of Court No. 1 in Freetown, where the newspaper is based. Pratt and Jones pleaded not guilty to the charges and were granted bail of 40 […]
(MFWA/IFEX) – On 27 May 2005, managing editor Sydney B. Pratt and reporter Dennis Jones, of the independent weekly “Trumpet”, were charged with seditious libel by Magistrate Sam Margai of Court No. 1 in Freetown, where the newspaper is based.
Pratt and Jones pleaded not guilty to the charges and were granted bail of 40 million Leones (approx. US$17,000), and one surety.
On 23 May, Pratt published a front-page article entitled, “Kabbah Mad Over Carew’s Bribe Scandal”. Following the story’s publication, the two journalists were arrested the next day on the orders of Federick M. Carew, the attorney general and justice minister.
According to MFWA-Sierra Leone sources, Pratt and Jones were detained for 48 hours at the central police station’s Criminal Investigations Department Headquarters and interrogated behind closed doors.
The journalists were released from police custody on 26 May and were formally charged with seditious libel on 27 May. However, they are scheduled to reappear in court on 3 June.
In the latest development, an intervention by the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) may free the journalists from the sedition proceedings. On 30 May, SLAJ President Ibrahim Ben Kargbo told MFWA-Sierra Leone sources that, after several pleas with Carew, the attorney general had assured him that if the “Trumpet” managing editor retracted the story he wrote against him in the forthcoming edition of the paper, he would discontinue the matter in court.
In its 31 May edition, “Trumpet” published a front page retraction of the 23 May article, saying the section in the story that quoted the president was incorrect.
