The biggest media crackdown since the civil war ended in 2003 is underway in Sierra Leone. Two editors of the Independent Observer newspaper, Jonathan Leigh and Bai Bai Sesay, face a possible three years in gaol if convicted of seditious libel after a front-page article likened President Ernest Bai Koroma (foto) to a rat. The men were arrested on 18 October, a day after the offending article was published, and spent 18 days in the maximum security Pademba Road Prison before being released on stringent bail conditions. They are due back in court on 18 November.
The article – ‘Who is Molesting Who: The President or the VP?’ – was deeply critical of Koroma in his current feud with Vice-President Samuel Sam-Sumana. President Koroma, it said, ‘is regarded as an elephant but he behaves like a rat and should be treated like one’. It also accused him of abusing the constitution and becoming a dictator. Police arrested Leigh and Sesay the following day and charged them with 26 counts of conspiracy and seditious libel under the controversial 1965 Public Order Act.
Africa Confidential
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário